


A Collection of Gally x Reader One Shots

by RiverOfFandoms



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Mixed Bag, collection, reader interactive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-03-17 18:55:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 31,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13665198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiverOfFandoms/pseuds/RiverOfFandoms
Summary: All chapters are one shots, and all are about Gally and the reader. Enjoy!





	1. Awfully Messy

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: You and the Gladers all enjoy a day of absolute fun.

“C’mon shanks, it’s time to get up.” Newt calls into the run-down room where most of the builders and some of the cooks they’ve befriended (including yourself) sleep. Someone pulls the curtains revealing a sharp flash of sunlight into the cave-like room.

You groan and roll over in your bundle of blankets, accidentally kicking Gally in the face whilst moving. “Hey!” He calls out and blindly grabs at your feet.

You squeal as his hands are incredibly cold, “Gally!” You kick your feet around crazily until his icy fingers lose their grip and you slide your feet back into the warmth of your blanket-cocoon. “Are you cold-blooded or something?”

He yawns loudly, “Maybe hanging around you so often caused that.”

You sit up from your bed and stare wildly down at Gally who looks mildly amused while smirking at his own joke. “You take that back, you shank!”

He chuckles before saying, “Make me.”

You tackle him immediately and his eyes widen with surprise, obviously thinking you weren’t  _actually_  going to try and make him. You try to your best ability to keep him pinned but of course he easily switches from bottom to top. “Seriously, Y/N? You’re half my size.”

You poke your tongue out at him, “Don’t be an ass. You were the one to challenge me.”

“Yes but you were obviously silly enough to take it.” He argues, face only inches away from yours as he tries to intimidate you.

You roll your eyes and try to kick him off but his grip only tightens. “Gally, this is the  _one_  day we get off, if you don’t let me go you’re seriously going to regret it.”

He rolls off your body, “Alright, alright; killjoy.”

After you and the other Gladers finish breakfast you all circle around Alby and Newt as they ready themselves to make an announcement. You assume they’re placing some rules about today, so you’re not keen to listen in as much as others are.

“Alright shanks, today is going to be a nice, fun day to relax and let out all of this stress that’s been building up on us.” Alby starts, “by the help of my dear friend,” he gestures to Newt, “We’ve come up with some activities that will happen throughout today.”

A few groans break out through the crowd, “Now, now.” Newt settles the Gladers before continuing, “You don’t  _have_  to participate; this isn’t school. We just thought that most of you would enjoy it, alright? Doing nothing all day isn’t in everyone’s fancy.”

You speak up, “He’s right.”

Teresa agrees and then asks, “So what’s up first?”

Newt grins, “The first challenge, or activity, is…well…” He looks to Alby, “We haven’t really gotten a name for it but it’ll be great.” He pulls in Thomas and Minho, “These two shanks are the best Runners in the Glade, and we all know that. So, we’ve made them team captains.”

Only a few of the Gladers turn the heads away in disinterest, you’re certainly not one of them.

“I’ve already written out who’s where so no arguing.” Alby interrupts.

“Exactly. Anyway, each team will be playing against each other, obviously. Both teams have a camp, or a base. This base is where you hide your team coloured balls. Red and Blue. Minho is blue and Thomas is red. The aim of the game is to collect as many balls as you can from the opposite team to your own. Now, along the way there are water balloons, paint and mud; anything messy you can think of. You can use these things to your advantage to tackle the other team members down. If you catch them you must take them to your prison which, if you’re smart, will hopefully be placed somewhere other than where your treasured balls are. You can free your team members from the opposite teams prison, if you reach it. There aren’t any limits to how many you can capture at once and how many you can free at once.”

You take in all the information, this game sounds familiar but you’re not able to place your finger on it. Maybe you played it in your life before the Glade; at least you hope you did. This game sounds incredible, you suddenly hope that Gally is on the opposite team so you can take him down. Which might be a little bit hard since he is double your size, but you’re certain your determination is bigger.

“Okay, so if I call your name you’re on Thomas’ team…” Newt calls out each name. Some people refuse to play and sit on the sidelines.

“Gally…” Newt says and your heart rises, maybe you won’t be on the same team after all.

“Y/N…” Dammit! Your face turns sour as you make your way to Thomas’ team. You were so looking forward to attacking that shank with paint… mud… even your bare hands.

“The teams are uneven.” Alby says, slightly annoyed.

“How are they uneven?” Teresa asks.

“The shanks that sat out.” Newt states, he turns towards your team. “Look, I know this will tick you off a bit but are there any volunteers to move to Minho’s-

You shoot your hand up in the air, wide-eyed.

Newt looks at you with amusement, “Alright, Y/N. Off you go.”

You move to Minho’s team and slap on blue war-paint, creating patterns over your face, arms and your legs. Minho looks hyped up and ready to win, so are you but even if you lose; you’ll still be happy if you take that sucker down.

* * *

“Alright, so everyone knows the plan?” Minho says.

“Yeah.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s do this!” Minho shouts and you all stomp your feet and sing a team chant before running off into different directions.

You make your way through the trees with Teresa, Jeff and Sam. At first you keep at a fast sprint until you hear crackling of twigs snapping from a distance, and voices. So you all hide as best you can behind bushes or up in the trees. Jeff and Teresa manage to climb a tree but you and Sam keep to a bush with hidden “weapons” inside. What looks like a stack of water balloons and mud.

“Don’t you worry, Winston, we’ll easily win this.”

It’s Gally.

You smirk as he comes closer and closer into your trap, you always knew he was a bit thick when it comes to thinking through situations.

“Now!” You shout as they literally step into the center. Teresa and Jeff tackle most of the enemies down and you grab a water balloon and a handful of mud. You edge closer to Gally but Teresa tries to take him out.

She misses, unfortunately and Gally escapes. Retreating. You look to the group and see that most of them are on the ground, you decide that Sam, Jeff and Teresa can handle them themselves so you take off after Gally.

You stealthily sneak around trees and bushes until you spot Gally up ahead, taking a seat on a log; catching back his breath. You crawl passed him and loom over his back, and then you slap the mud onto the top of his head. You watch as it trickles down his face while grinning evilly.

But soon that grin disappears as he turns around slowly, quite angry. His eyes narrow and he stands up from the log, suddenly becoming very, very big. You immediately regret attacking him on your own, how could have you been so stupid?

“Hey?” You try but Gally doesn’t laugh, not even a smile.

You gulp as he steals the water balloon from your hand, lifts it over your head and then squeezes. You squeal as it pops in his hand, splashing over your face and down the front of your shirt. You look back up at him and he grins evilly.

You turn to run, as you know there is absolutely no way you can take this beast down but his arms wrap around your waist, you try to pry his fingers off your body but they don’t budge. He encloses you and then swings you around so he’s got you slung over his shoulder. “No!” You shout in refusal but it’s too late. Your attack backfired and he captured you all too easily.

As he trudges back to his base, well, his prison, you think of ways to try and get out his grip. Maybe if you kick him hard enough he’ll let you go? But then again, this is Gally you’re talking about. He’s equivalent to a tank. No way would one of your feeble kicks suffice.

“See what happens when you judge a situation wrong? Can’t believe you thought you could take me down, Y/N.”

“Oh ha-ha.” You say sarcastically, “Just slim it, taking me to your dumb prison is enough punishment; stop rubbing it in.”

“Prison?” He laughs maniacally, “I’m not done with you yet! Remember, you slapped mud all in my hair.”

“Yeah but you got me back with that water balloon!” You panic.

“Water’s nothing.” You catch a group of boys to your left and spot a couple of balls. If you remember where the base is then maybe you can escape Gally, steal a ball and get the hell out of there! A new urge of positivity surges through your mind, there is no way you’re going to leave empty handed.

Gally leads you to a patch of grass, cans of paint litter the ground. Some evidently used but there are still plenty filled to the brim; untouched. “Oh shuck no.”

Gally looks amused as he gently sits you down, he knows you can’t leave because of the boys outside. They’ll surely catch you… right? You start to think. Maybe if you use the paint to your advantage instead, you could escape Gally and go around the back way; freeing any prisoners from your team and then group together to steal their balls. The more of you there are, the more chance you can get out of here.

“As soon as I saw this paint, I thought of you.”

“Oh yeah? How romantic.”

He grins and lifts a bucket of paint but before he can pour it all over you, you jump up at him and kick the bucket upwards. It splashes some of its contents directly onto his face and you take this opportunity to get the hell out of there.

As you presumed, you find the prison in no time. For some reason however… no one is guarding it. You come to the entrance, you see Teresa, Minho and Jared. “Y/N!” They half whisper-shout with excitement and relief.

You take them out and lead them to the balls, still; no one there. “This is weird…” You mutter, “Where is everyone?”

“HA!” Gally and more of his team members ambush you all, throwing water balloons left, right and center. Sloshing mud all through your clothes and hair and adding paint as the final touch.

In the end, your team loses. Gally ended up torturing you with the paint as he promised, and you all look like confused, sad rainbows. But of course you’re not going to let what Gally did slide, so later in the afternoon; you catch up with Minho, Jeff, Teresa and Jared to come up with a plan of revenge.

Gally is definitely going down this time.

* * *

“Alright, so we’re all clear on what to do?” You say excitedly, keen to go and tear Gally and the rest of those slintheads down.

“Shuck yeah, let’s do this!” Teresa says confidently and you make your way to the Homestead, hoses and buckets in hand.

You creep through the creaky floorboard covered room, mud and paint slosh over the sides of your containers and occasionally drip on the floor but neither of you are fussed because soon the whole Homestead will become one messy disaster.

You tip-toe past a few more bedrooms until you’ve come to the right place. Gently setting down your buckets, you open the door with a slight creak. You hope they’re all asleep, and to your relief; they are. All snug as a bug.

You turn back to the others and gesture for them to come in, they nod and waddled forwards as you do yourself. You all group up together by the front of the room, careful not to splash anyone accidentally who lay asleep on the floor, legs splayed and arms spread.

But then Minho bumps into the back of you, almost sending you and the paint you carry, all over Gally who seems to be asleep right in front of your feet. You try to regain your balance, and you think you do until a noise from outside startles you and the bucket slips form your fingers, spraying its contents all over Gally and his blanket-cocoon.

“Shit.”

Minho and the others charge forwards, splattering and smooshing all the dirty, messy liquids all over each Glader in the room. They all wake up looking terrified but once they wake up completely they become enraged.

“Y/N!” Gally shouts as he tries to wipe the paint off his face, not doing a very good job. It streaks down the sides of his face

“I –that’s for before!” You shout angrily, but soon your spark of intimidation and bravery goes out as soon as Gally stands up; his body towering over you.

“Are you sure you want to do this again, Y/N?”

You scrunch your eyebrows in confusion and look up at his misleading face, trying to understand what the shuck he meant by that. “Excuse me?”

His hands reach out to you but you manoeuvre around them and head straight for the door, retreating from the battlefield. You run out of the Homestead and escape to the forest, hoping you have some kind of camouflage in the trees. You hear footsteps and immediately fall into a crouch, hoping he doesn’t spot you.

He walks past the bush you hide behind, and then walks back again. He leaves the forest and you watch him walk away and then around a building. You stand up from your hiding spot and think of another place to hide, something a little more comfortable than this bush at least.

But you’re stopped short, Gally has found you.

In one swift movement, Gally pulls you into him and shakes the paint off his body, then wipes it onto yours. He presses his cheeks against yours leaving dabs of green on either side. As you fight against his grip and try to escape, he only pulls you back tighter before your squirming leads to being pinned on the dirty ground. He grins down at you, and your no longer terrified… but instead highly amused.

“You’re such a shank, you know that? Honestly, you already got owned today and you decide to try again?” Gally shakes his head; paint flies.

“It worked, didn’t it?” You ask sassily, a drop of paint splatters onto your chin.

His eyes stare down at the paint as he removes a hand from your arm and rubs the green drop across your chin, his thumb brushing against the bottom of your lip. You probably closely resemble a pea by now, you forgot the paint was green. Really, really green.

His eyes drop to your now lightly tinged-green lips and he huffs, “Probably…” His head dips closer and when his lips touch yours you gasp inaudibly in surprise. Your free hand presses against his chest but soon rises to cup his jaw. This was a whole new side to Gally… and it confused you but… you had suspected there was something more to the both of you, you just hadn’t dared.

You keep your hand on his face as he lifts his lips from yours, his eyes close for a moment after. He then flops to your right-side and drags his hands over his face, “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have done that.” He groans.

“Why not?”

He turns to you, sort of surprised and sort of hopeful. “I thought… I don’t know, I thought you and Minho had a thing going on or something…”

You blink in confusion, “Really?” You giggle, “What made you think that?”

Gally blushes slightly, “I –er, well you went over to his team.”

“I went over there so I could attack you because you called me cold-hearted.”

“You planned this with Minho too…”

“Stop arguing with me; I don’t like Minho in that way. Nor do we have a thing.”

“Oh.” He says, as he stares up at the sky, looking relieved and peaceful. You never thought Gally would ever show his gentle side, as he always has this tough wall around him. And somehow, you think, you broke it down. Even if it’s just a little, it’s at least something.

You smile up at him, “You know Gally, around this time the kissing should be happening.”


	2. Let Me Love You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: You and Gally need to sort out some of your frustrations with each other... and feelings.

“Hey, Y/N, can I talk to you for a quick sec?” Alby beckons you over with a small wave of his hand. You know that whenever Alby does this it means no good will come of it. To be completely honest with yourself, he does intimidate you. And you worry he knows that.

“Sure.”

“I heard you and Gally last night.” He says seriously, a frown turning his usual smile upside down. “You two were awfully loud.”

You are only just able to supress the blush, “We were arguing.”

Alby eyes you off for a moment, “I… know that…? What were you implying?”

“N-nothing!”

He stares at you for one more moment before shaking his head, “Anyway, like I said, you two were loud. So loud that I had to block my ears with my own shuck-pillow. I know you don’t get along with Gally, not many people do, but you need to grow up. Get over whatever he does or says to piss you off because I need my beauty sleep and so does every other shank in this place, got me?”

You look to your feet shyly and mumble, “I can’t help that he angers me so much… Every time he opens his damn mouth I want to smack him right in the middle of his face!”

“But you wouldn’t do that, now, would you? Don’t want to break any of the rules we have here.”

“Of course Alby… I was just… never mind.” Alby turns to go but you quickly catch him before it’s too late, “I try to get along with Gally, I really do, but he doesn’t make it easy for me either.”

“I already had this chat with him this morning so I expect better behaviour from the both of you.” He heads towards the Homestead as soon as he finishes the conversation, leaving you feeling a little down about your situation. Ever since… If Gally wasn’t such an ass to you on your first day in the Glade then maybe things would be different.

* * *

“Hey, you know what I want to see?” A boy near Gally and the rest of his awful Builder gang says with a wicked smile and challenging eyes. He looks over at you for a split second and then back to Gally, you try to ignore them and continue eating your lunch on a picnic table beside their fighting ring, but you are suddenly overwhelmed with thoughts of regret on sitting here and you fight the urge to think negatively about yourself. “I want to see Y/N fight Gally.”

You immediately drop your fork onto your plate and stare up at the unknown boy, maybe his name was Trent, but you don’t really care. You’re not astonished, not even the slightest bit surprised, you’re just irritated. Irritated already and you haven’t even said a word to Gally since earlier in the afternoon. “You’re kidding me right?”

“What, you’re scared to fight this beast?”

“Well, he definitely is a beast, monstrous at that. You’ve always been this ugly?” You smile quite rudely over at Gally who rolls his eyes in reply. No witty comeback like usual?

“You’re always fighting each other verbally, how about you settle it once and for all?” The kid presses, his blue eyes excitedly lighting up at the idea.

Gally puts a hand on the kid’s shoulder, “Look Trent, it wouldn’t be fair…”

You jump up from your seat, your arms crossed over your chest. You stare at Gally, and he stares back. A slight confusion reflecting in his eyes, but his stare soon becomes a glare. “You think I can’t fight you?”

Gally mimics your manner, your tone, “You think you can?”

You rush into the roughly drawn circle, and as soon as you do the Builders rush out of it –surrounding you in a ring of war. Other Gladers from lunch start to wander over to, obviously entertained by the commotion.

Gally’s arms drop from his chest as he sighs heavily, he spreads his legs slightly and drops his weight –lifting his hands in front of his chest. “Alright girlie, hit me with your best shot.”

You shake out your hands, and the battle begins. Both of you trace the outer circle, walking slowly –waiting to slip in a shot. Gally’s eyes don’t leave yours, their cold and hard colour piercing your very soul. His arms tighten, his veins pop with the colour of purple. You can see his swollen muscles stretch through his shirt, you suddenly feel very small compared to him.  

A burst of courage however, from the pits of your stomach, causes you to leap at him. You manage to take him down into the dirt with heavy pressed hands on his shoulders. But within less than a second he manages to pin you down onto the ground. You feel his weight over you and push with much effort but he doesn’t budge. This was a bad idea.

“Give up yet, shank?”

You squirm underneath his hold, and suddenly kick your foot out at his leg. His knee buckles and he collapses onto you completely so you take this opportunity to roll out from underneath. As you stand up again, you quickly brush the dirt from your clothes. Gally jumps up in no time and you’re ready to pounce at him again but this time he leaps at you. He twists your arms behind your back and pushes you step-by-step over the edge of the circle. Gally’s body pressed against yours flushes heat through your cheeks, but thankfully most of your hair is able to cover your embarrassment.

As you are just about to be pushed over the edge of the circle however, you stomp on his foot and jump the other way. He turns around and you can see anger in those lonesome eyes, “You’re a squirmy one, aren’t ya?”

You prepare yourself for another tackle but a loud voice reaches out over the wrestling match. The crowd stops hooting and cat-calling as the voice speaks, “Gally. Y/N. Come with me. Now.”

You glance at Gally who suddenly becomes slightly worried and also pissed off. You already know who the voice belongs to, so you don’t blame him. Especially when Alby literally just told you this morning that he wanted better behaviour from both of you. You worry that you’ve crossed a line and all sorts of thoughts rush through your head. Would he Banish you?

“Alright you damn slintheads, what did I just tell you?” Alby stares threateningly at the both of you, and when none of you reply he repeats himself, “I said, what did I just buggin’ tell you, slintheads?”

Gally’s voice comes out quietly, “To get along with each other…”

“And what have you gone and done?” Silence lingers in the air for a few seconds before he continues on, “Try to kill each other, that’s what.”

“I wasn’t going to hurt her.”

“I’m not talking about you Gally.” His eyes skim over yours accusingly. “I just can’t believe you two, honestly. Why do you have to make things so difficult? You’re not five anymore, it’s time to grow up. If you don’t start getting along I will take serious action, and I’m not just saying this –I promise I will punish you.”

Both of you nod solemnly before Alby takes a deep breath and leaves the both of you –attending to the over-hyped ground that watched your fight go down.

You can’t just let Gally go however, it’s his fault and his friends that got you into trouble! They were the ones to provoke the stupid fight! “If you’re stupid bone-head friends didn’t piss me off like that then maybe I wouldn’t have fought you, and Alby wouldn’t be mad at us.”

“Oh come off it, Y/N. It’s your fault just as much as it is mine.”

You step closer to him, the colour of angry red colouring your cheeks, “You know what Gally?  I’m sick of you! At least I actually try to make this work between us!”

Gally rolls his eyes, “Oh yeah, so coming over to fight me was you trying to make it work? I definitely see it now!”

Your eyes light up with heated anger, “Coming from you beast-boy, you stupid, whiny, son of a-

Suddenly one of his hands reaches around the back of your head, his other on your neck. Before you know it, his lips tangle with yours. The faint taste of liquor and salt erupts in your mouth and you feel yourself reaching for more; wanting more. Your hands wrap around his torso as you pull yourself in closer, both of your bodies pressed against one another. An explosion of heat startles your stomach –is this really happening right now?

But the kiss abruptly stops, and as it does he immediately pushes himself away from you. There is no words between the both of you, nothing to explain his actions or yours. Nothing to bring you to understand how you felt that and why you felt that. He just looks away, vaguely embarrassed before leaving you to drown in your own thoughts.

* * *

You thought the fight today was the final straw, but that was nothing compared to what Gally’s Builder friends decided to do to you. It started at lunch the next day, they pushed you around and threw insults at you whenever they could.

But right now, you want more than anything in the world to curl up into a ball and disappear for good. About ten minutes ago you had entered the shower block to take a shower, and usually Newt is around to make sure you’re okay and keep a watch out for lurking Gladers, but something must have happened because now you’re stuck in the shower block with nothing but this skimpy, tiny white towel to cover your wet, naked body.

The damn Builders took your clothes.

You stand in the shower for a moment or two, feeling the annoyance and the anger rush through you. How could this have happened? But would you just let them take your clothes like that? Let them win? Hell no.

You leave the shower block, no sign of Newt of course. They must have distracted him. You scan the Glade for the same stupid, smirked faces that have been tormenting you ever since you got Gally into trouble. And soon you spot them, nearby a patch of trees. They’re holding your clothes, laughing and talking. You spot Gally in the group as well and a sudden rage takes control over your mind.

You rush up to them, their stunned faces giving you the strength to shout at them. “You pile of slintheads, you think you can humiliate me?” You stare them down, “I don’t care that you’ve taken my clothes, but I would appreciate it if you give them back.” You struggle to hold the towel around your body, and when you see Gally staring at you, you feel your cheeks flush.

“Oh, so you don’t care? Guess you won’t be needing these.” Trent, the shank from yesterday laughs in your face while holding your underwear in one hand.

“Mind if we take a peek?”

“Give us a show, come on!”

Gally immediately stands up, “Alright, alright, lads, I think we’ve teased her enough.”

“Aw but-

“I said that it’s enough, got me shank?” He almost growls, and you see the fear flash over Trent and his friend’s eyes.

“Yeah, we got you Gally.”

You shake away Gally’s protection and push your way through the boys to stand directly in front of him, “So? This all your idea?”

He swallows a lump in his throat, “No, not really.”

“Oh whatever, just get me my clothes back.”

“What is that, some kind of order?”

“Oh for goodness sake Gally, I’m standing here in my damn towel!”

Gally proceeds to look over you but stops abruptly as he realises what he’s doing, to hide his embarrassment he snatches your clothes off the other boys and pulls you away from the crowd. “Go get dressed then, and next time, don’t prance around in your towel. Don’t you have any other clothes?”

You frown, “Maybe, but I didn’t want your friends to think they could just push me around like that.” You sigh, “I can put up with you Gally but since when did this constant fighting involve your stupid friends?”

“Would you stop calling them stupid?”

You throw your hands up in frustration, “Ugh! You’re so… so…” You drop your arms by your side and look at the boy who has confused you since the very beginning. Feelings and memories start flooding in from last night when he kissed you like that, what the hell was that all about anyway?

“You finished?” He asks, his eyes tired.

“No, actually, I’m not. When are you going to explain to me about what happened last night?”

Gally shakes his head, “Oh forget it.”

He turns to go but you immediately grab a hold of his arm, “Wait, Gally, you can’t just kiss me and expect all of that to go away without any kind of explanation!” As you speak, he turns around.

“Look, it’s honestly nothing, just go and… go, alright?”

“Tell me what the hell it was all about!”

“I –oh for shuck’s sake, isn’t it obvious?” The way he looks at you makes your heart flutter before rising in pace.

“But I thought you hated me.”

He immediately shakes his head and rushes over to you, his hands cupping your face to direct your line of sight. “No, no, no, Y/N. I… I don’t hate you. I never could hate you.” He lets go of your face, “You confuse me! Ever since you came up in that shuck-Box, I don’t know whether I’m angry at you or totally in love!”

“I…” You’re unsure how to reply.

Gally looks to his feet, “You can’t say that you don’t feel anything either… because damn; that kiss.” He looks up at you and smiles cheekily and you just shake your head while trying to hold in your laughter. Gally smiles softly, you’ve never really seen him smile much before and you’re happy that it is you who can make him smile like that. “You do feel something for me… right?”

You pull Gally in close to you and lean in for another kiss, your lips brush against his gently; softly at first. You feel his hands glide over your skin to the small of your back in effort to deepen the kiss. Your hands slip and shake as you try to keep your towel on with effort as both your bodies move with one another. But your hands keep fidgeting with the towel and it disrupts any kind of flow you two could have so he pulls away again, like last night, but this time he doesn’t walk away, instead he keeps you close but whispers croakily, “How about you go put these clothes on first…”

You stare at the bundle of material in his hand, “Yeah… might be a good idea.”

* * *

You spot Gally walking past your usual sneaky meeting spot, oblivious and vague. You snatch up his hand and pull him into you behind the building, using the shadows to keep you hidden. You kiss his mouth, his lips instantly responding.

“Whoa, Y/N…” Gally whispers softly, his eyes igniting with desire. “I’ve only got a few seconds, honestly. Can we do this later?” His words tell you to go but his hands keep you close, wrapped tightly around you.

You pull away from the gentle trail of kisses you leave over his neck, “Aw, but Gally, you always only have a few seconds. Can’t those Builders look after themselves?” You trace his chest gently with your fingertips, the bottom of your lip in between your teeth.

He looks at you adoringly and you almost think he gives in but he clenches his jaw and steps around you, “Like I said, I only have a few seconds.”

“Your friends so stupid that they can’t handle things themselves?” You pause but Gally only looks away, “When Newt told me the Builders had nothing going on upstairs I didn’t really believe him –until now.” It sort of slips out of your mouth at first but when it does it feels good, it’s not fair that Gally gets to stand you up every time.

Gally crosses his arms over his chest and gives you that look, “Okay then, so I’m stupid too?”

You shake your head, “That’s not what I was trying to say.”

“Then what were you trying to say, huh?”

You throw your hands up in frustration, “I just wanted some time with you alone. You never make time for me. It’s always about building your damn… what do you even build? Picnic tables? Like we need any more of them!”

“We don’t just build picnic tables!”

“That’s not-  
You shake your head, “Whatever Gally.” You walk past him, shouldering him as you walk on through. You spot a few of Gally’s friends as you walk away giving you the stink eye so you flip them off and make your way over to the Gardens to tend to your duties.

“Well, you sure look pissed.” Newt starts, chucking you a shovel, “What’s up?”

You roll your eyes and dig the shovel deep into the tightly-packed dirt with an angry grunt, “What do you think?” You wipe the sweat from your brow.

Newt sneakily smiles at the other boys around you before turning his attention back to you, “Trouble in paradise?”

You suddenly kick the shovel over, arms crossed over one another, “He’s so…”

“So?”

“He’s a jerk! I just want to be able to spend time with him. Sometimes there are problems like not being able to meet up because there are Glade jobs we have to do but he doesn’t even try to figure a way around it, or even plan for another time!” You look Newt in the eyes, ignoring the slight snickering of other fellow Track-hoes, “He just wants to build.”

Newt shrugs, “Maybe it’s because that’s all he’s ever had.” Newt bends down and picks up your fallen shovel and proceeds to dig it back into the Earth, “Building things was all he ever had before you came into the picture.”

“So building is his first priority then? That’s a load of klunk!”

“It’s not his first priority, Y/N, it’s what he’s used to being his first priority. And then all of a sudden he has someone else with him, loving him and caring for him and he doesn’t know how to react or go about things because he’s never been in that situation before.”

You stare down at the ground, “Then what do I do?”

“I ain’t no buggin’ marriage counsellor.”

“Should I… talk to him?”

Newt shrugs his shoulders, “Every time you guys talk it seems to always end in a screaming match.”

You frown, a hand on your hip, “Not all the time.”

“Well it doesn’t count when you’re being all… physical.”

“Oh ha-ha.” You sigh and grab onto your shovel, pulling up a shovel-amount of dirt before loading it into the wheelbarrow. “I don’t want to have to end things with him, you know? I… I really like him.”

“Deep down?” Someone jokes.

“Very deep down?” Another track-hoe adds.

You roll your eyes, “Whatever.” You can’t deal with this right now, what happened to everyone helping one another? You see it all the time with the boys, but they’re never on your side anymore. You stop walking for a moment, is it because you’re with Gally?

You look over at where you saw Gally last, but he’s no longer in view. You think about looking for him but you just keep your head down and do your work. That’s what he would do. Just build, build, build.

* * *

“Y/N, can we talk?” Alby nods his head over to a tree for some privacy.

You feel your shoulders slump, “Sure…”

You reach the tree, although you stare longingly out to the picnic tables where everyone settles down for their dinner. A much needed one at that. And besides, every time Alby pulls you out of the crowd of Gladers to talk to you, you know it’s not going to be anything good.

“First, I never thanked you on your good behaviour with Gally. Although it almost turned into a little too much good behaviour…” Alby chuckles for a moment as you feel your cheeks go red. “But now we’re back at square one aren’t we, what’s going on?”

“You heard us fight earlier today?”

“I think even the sleeping Grievers heard you two.”

You both laugh but soon it dies down as you remember how good you two were before today. “I mean, we still argue Alby…”

“Yeah but that’s just silly stuff to piss each other off, you guys haven’t properly fought in ages.”

“Until today…”

“Until today.” Alby confirms, shifting his weight onto one leg, “So what’s going on?”

“He’s being selfish.”

“How so?”

You cross your arms over one another, “All he cares about is building, you know? He’s so focused on his job, there’s no time for me at all.”

Alby sighs, “I don’t know how I can help really because him working… well it’s a big help to the Glade.”

“You’re right but he’s over-working. He should be able to have some time to do other things than building.”

“But it’s clear he doesn’t want that…”

You shake your head and scoff, “What’s the point then?” You walk off, pissed to the max. Angry. Why would Alby be so one-sided? Maybe everyone’s right, maybe the whispers you hear and the thoughts that seem to be are true. You’re just not right for Gally.

You walk over to the Kitchens but before you can make it Gally steps out in front of you. You don’t want to do this now so you just simply ignore him altogether. You’re hungry, and when you’re hungry, you are grumpy. But you don’t get far as you feel Gally’s fingers wrap around yours. He pulls you back into his chest.

Your heart races as his hand moves over your body to your back, but you stop him abruptly. “No.”

“What?” He asks, his eyes flashing irritation.

“I only have a few seconds, honestly. Can’t we do this later?” The sarcasm in your voice gets to him straight away, you can feel the anger bubbling inside him from the tensing of his muscles. You smile sweetly before pushing yourself away from him and making your way over to collect your dinner. You watch Gally walk over to the Builder’s picnic table, you can see in how he speaks to them that he is pissed off. Goal accomplished.

* * *

You walk out of the toilet, heading back to their monthly bonfire when a voice calls out to you. “Y/N.” Gally jumps out from nowhere yet again, but you just roll your eyes.

“How about you just leave me alone?”

“No, I won’t. We need to figure this out, don’t we?”

“Then why don’t you just say you’re sorry?”

Gally looks at me, pissed again, “I’m not saying sorry for anything until I understand what happened.”

You breathe in and out, trying to calm your frustrations, “There’s nothing to understand. You’re a builder, and that’s all you are.”

Gally shakes his head, “I’m not  _just_  a builder.” He throws his hands up in the air, “I can’t believe that’s all you think of me!”

“How can I think of you any more than that when that is all you do?! Every single damn day!” You feel your face grow hot with anger, your eyes glaring into his.

“What else am I  _to_ do? That’s my job, it’s what I’m supposed to do every day.”

“Oh yeah, sure, who cares about me! It’s not like I’m your girlfriend or anything!”

“That’s right, you’re not my girlfriend.”

You feel your heart miss a beat, “Excuse me?”

Gally clenches his jaw, his eyes searching yours, “It’s not like we ever said we were boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Oh, okay.” You smile, “Sure, this whole time I believed I was special to you… But I was just some toy? Some play thing for you? I don’t mean anything to you at all!?”

By now both your voice and Gally’s has raised to ultimate screeching and yelling. But it’s not something you think consciously of right now, you’re used to all of this. The arguing. But it’s never really felt this intense… and it scares you. Maybe things were better the way they used to be.

“That’s not what I was trying to say!”

“Then what were you trying to say Gally?” The tears that spill over your cheeks are hot with anger and frustration, but you don’t blink or wipe them away, you show yourself, completely vulnerable before him to make him hurt. To make him feel what you are feeling.

“I’m…” He sighs, “I want you… I want you to be my girlfriend. I want you to be mine.”

“Then why all of this… avoidance? Why would you pretty much ignore me for these past months?”

“Because I wanted to somehow make it official but you know I’m not good at this stuff… I didn’t realise you thought we were like that already.” He looks at the ground, “And all the time I felt bad if we were intimate because we weren’t… Because I thought we weren’t really together. Every time I was going to talk to you or even show you in some romantic way I… I chickened out.”

It suddenly feels as though a rush of relief passes through you, your voice grows quiet, “Why didn’t you just tell me, Gally?”

“I’m sorry, Y/N, really. I just, all of this is… I don’t know how to do it.” He breathes in and out, “So there, I said it, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel worthless or not special to me. You are special to me, you’re the only person in this place that I care for.”

“Oh for shuck’s sake,” You laugh and pull him in for a hug, “I never realised that you…” You pull away from him and look into his eyes, “You know you can just tell me anything and everything that’s on your mind. There’s no need to stress about it, okay? Never feel like you can’t talk to me, you know I love you and you’re dumb little butt.”

Gally smiles, and pulls you in closer. You let him hold you as close as he does before you reach up to give him a kiss. He gladly accepts, keeping the moment special and lasting, “Time to make up for all those times that I ditched you, yes?”

“Definitely.”


	3. I Like Punching People, But I Also Like Hugging You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: You're hot headed, and it often threatens your place in the Glade community. But when you befriend the unlikely Gally, he teaches you how to really deal with your anger.

You stand straight in the middle of the Glade, hands on your hips; breathing in the fresh morning air. It was a beautiful sunrise, considering you’re trapped in this dreadful prison. Too bad you’ll have to waste your time in the Kitchens preparing every slime-boy Glader’s breakfast. Last time it took four hours preparing, cooking, packing up, and cleaning. This time it probably won’t go by any faster. You look away from the sun and spot Frypan over at the entrance to the Kitchen block, his scruffy face and tired eyes searching for the rest of the Cooks. You sigh, take one last glance at the sun, and the head on over.

By the time the boys start seeping in, taking their seats around the block, smelling the cooking of eggs and bacon, you and the rest of the kitchen crew have almost finished with last batch of food. Right now you feel alright, somehow you have enough energy to keep going, but the constant smell of all of this breakfast food scrambles your guts, pushing a feeling of nausea over you. You and breakfast food obviously don’t mix.

“Can’t you work any faster, Y/N?” A boy named Corey pushes, his raspy voice practically inviting you to be irritated. “We’re almost done but you’re holding the rest of us up.”

“Slim it, egg boy. I’m going as fast as I can. Besides, what else have you got to do? Not like you’re going on a date anytime soon.” You wipe the sweat of your forehead with your arm and keep working with scrambling a portion of the eggs, it takes a bit of time to get them right. Just because Corey can’t handle a few hours in the Kitchen doesn’t mean he gets to push you around for being a tad slower.

“Whatever.” He mutters, shaking his head as he moves along to a different station.

You finish with this pan and move onto the next, glancing behind you for a few seconds. You see egg-boy again, talking to Kev while sneaking dirty looks back at you. He’s not peeling or cracking the eggs like he is supposed to, instead he’s chatting away like it means nothing. What a hypocrite! You ditch the pan, and walk straight across the kitchen towards Corey. His eyes widen as you come closer, you can feel the heat emitting from your face as hot anger takes control.

“What do you think you’re doing?” You lash out, watching Corey’s eyes dart around your face nervously.

“I…” He looks over at Kev who has decided to slowly edge away from the confrontation in front of him. Corey looks back at you, “Who cares? Just go scramble those eggs before they burn,  _shank_.”

Usually, you don’t take the word shank as much of an insult. But the tone in his voice and the anger in his eyes… something just snaps inside you. “You know what Corey? You’re done.”

“Excuse me?”

You shove his chest, hard, “Get out of here!”

Corey stumbles back and slips on spilt milk, sending him ass up. He knocks his head, and as his yelp resounds throughout the kitchen, people start flooding towards him. He lifts his head dizzily, his hand coming away from the back covered in blood. “Ah, crap.”

You swallow hard at the sight of his blood, something in your gut drops making your heart beat fast. Guilt.

“Who left their eggs unattended?” Frypan shouts over the rushed voices of Med-jacks. “They’re freakin’ burnt now, what a waste!” His eyes narrow on you, and you roll yours back at him as you walk passed. You exit the building, tears jerking at the edge of your eyes. The anger inside you, at Corey, at Frypan, at the eggs, at yourself. It fires you up with too much energy, too many emotions. As you pass the exit’s wall you slam your fist into it, breaking through the thin layer of wall. You didn’t realise that the walls weren’t as thick as the ones inside.

You walk away from the block, a few people eyeing you off as you leave. One of them, Gally as you recall, calls out to you, “What happened in there?”

“None of your damn business, slinthead.” You feel the growl in your voice escape from deep within your chest, and it takes Gally by surprise. Or rather, amusement.

* * *

It’s the next morning, and you’re up as the sun rises. But finally, you get to have a break from morning preparation. You finally get to have a break from egg-boy. You laugh at the thought, it’s been too long.

You sit on the grass this time, knees pulled up to your chest. Of course you would rather sleep the morning away but the events from yesterday have kept an incredible guilt lingering in your mind. Of course you didn’t mean to hurt Corey like that however you’re very grateful that he’ll be alright.

“Y/N!”

You swivel around immediately, a hand raised to block the sun from your eyes. It’s Corey’s friend, Kev. He must be on breakfast duty this morning again. You stand up from the grass, your eyes burn into his, “Something on your mind?”

“Yeah,” He nods over-confidently “There is, actually. I find it disturbing that you hurt so many people around the Glade, and not one person teaches you a lesson.” He takes a breath, his green eyes sparking with some kind of righteous anger for his friend, “You do know there is a rule around here about not harming another Glader, right? I reckon you’ve broken that rule about… hmm… fifty times?”

“Back off, Kev. I don’t need no mommy telling me off.”

“Oh yeah? Boohoo. Stop acting like some kind of savage, Y/N. Attacking everyone you meet isn’t attractive.”

You shove Kev’s shoulders; he stumbles back. “Just get lost Kev.”

“Make me.”

You shove him again, even harder than last.

He laughs, “Why are you so mad? Something stuck up your ass, sweetie?”

“I said,” Your voice deepens as you get mad, “Get. Lost.”

“Or are you just on your period?”

You jump at him, taking him to the ground. His back hits the dirt and you keep him pinned underneath you. Your hand clenches into a fist as he struggles to push you off. You raise it above his face, but as the anger swells up inside you another hand from behind you grabs onto your fist and rips it away from the scene; your body follows. The hands wrap around your waist and lift you over a shoulder, carrying you away from the storm that could have been.

“Let me go you slimy bastard!” Instead of a witty reply or an irritated grunt, even a gasp of fear, you feel whoever holds you up laugh; their chest shaking. “You are  _so_  going to regret ever picking me up!”

Finally, you’re put back onto the ground, your eyes meeting the Glader who put you to absolute shame. Gally.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” His voice comes out rough, but there’s a hinted smile behind his eyes, “You’re like,” He takes a second to look you up and down, “Five foot nothing! What the hell were you trying to achieve by attacking Kev, who is practically triple your size, shrimp.”

You eye him angrily, his words only firing you up once again. “Don’t you  _dare_ call me a shrimp you… you… you douchebag!”

“Oh ouch, I’m really hurt. I think I’ll go cry to my mommy now.”

You cross your arms over your chest, “How about you just leave me alone, asswipe.”

Gally chuckles, “Seriously? Asswipe? Come on, I know you can do better than that.”

You stop a moment, looking him over. He’s big, of course. Probably bigger than Kev. You suppose he would have to be massive if he’s the Keeper of the Builders. Maybe if you muster up enough strength you could take him down. You step in closer to him, but he only raises an eyebrow; like he’s mocking you or something.

“You know what Gally? Maybe I’ll spare you, this time.” You glare up into his amused eyes, “But if you talk to me again, if you even look at me, I  _will_  take you down.”

He nods his head slowly, “Uh-huh,  _sure_.”

“Shut up.”

* * *

Apparently your threats didn’t work, they didn’t even phase the guy! He keeps following you around, lurking in the shadows. Today, he pulled you away from yet another almost-physical-encounter. What is he, your mom?

“Y/N, seriously, when are you going to stop picking on everyone around here?”

“When they stop pissing me off!”

Gally looks at you for a moment, and you hate it. You’d rather him slap you in the face than being disappointed. “People are always going to be pissing you off, believe me, I know.”

“Well then…” You look away, slightly embarrassed. “What am I supposed to do? Let them push me around like that?”

He smiles, which is weird. You’ve totally never seen this guy smile before… it’s nice. Well, it looks nice. You shake those thoughts out of your head and listen to what he has to say. “Glad you asked. If someone pisses you off, you don’t let them know it. You walk away. You do something else. You could even come talk to me, seriously. I know it might sound hypocritical coming from me, because I’m probably always in a grumpy mood. But I’ve learnt to stop taking out my anger physically because it’s not healthy, and I know you can learn it too.”

“I can’t just walk away from a fight, it’s cowardly.”

“No, it’s not. It’s letting the other person know that you don’t care enough about them to let their bullshit hurt you.”

You’re quiet for only a moment before saying, “I’ve never thought about it like that before.”

“I’m glad I could be the one to open your eyes,” he laughs, light-heartedly. “But like I said, if you start to feel like you’re losing control, come talk to me. I’m still learning to figure out when I’m going to explode, so we can help each other. Okay?”

You try very, very hard to not smile, “Okay.”

* * *

“You know what?” Your voice lashes out, clenching and unclenching your fists. You stare the boy straight in the eyes, and strangely enough, Gally smiling pops up in your mind. You frown, irritated that this is the fourth or fifth time it happened this week. Why is this memory always haunting your every move?

“What?” The boy replies back.

“I’m going to… to walk away and not talk to you for a few hours, got it?” You turn away and walk far away, your eyes searching the Glade for Gally. You spot him, and immediately he notices your distress. This is probably the fifth time you’ve had to use him to calm you down. But this time, instead of calming down as he nears you, you burst into tears.

“Hey,” He cups your face, “What’s wrong?”

“This boy… he –he.” You couldn’t manage to get the words out as the sobs overtook your throat.

“What did he do?” His eyes fill with concern for you, and it makes you feel slightly better.

You breathe in and out, Gally’s touch calming your distress. “He said… He said I’m a lousy Cook and that I should get Banished for what I’ve done because no one would miss me anyway.”

Gally frowns, “He what!?”

“Gally?” You ask, uncertainty lacing your voice.

“Where is he?” He glances around, letting go of your face. “I’m going to punch him in the face so hard that he wished  _he_ was getting Banished!”

You run after him as he takes long, angry strides in a desperate attempt to find him. Even though he has no clue who said it. “Gally!” You shout, but he completely ignores you. What happened to this so called wise man who has learned the secret of not getting all fired up?

“Y/N, where is-

“Gally!”

He shuts up and turns to face you, slightly surprised by the firmness in your voice. “What?”

“What happened to not getting pissed off at someone?”

He frowns, and then chews the bottom of his lip out of frustration. “Well, he can’t just insult you like that!”

“I’m fine.”

He raises his arms in the air as he tries to prove a point, “He made you cry!”

“I’m a big girl now, I’ll get over it.” You take a hold of his hand, and he starts to breathe at a normal pace again.

“But…” He sighs, and pulls you into a tight, warm embrace. “I would miss you, you know. If you got Banished.”

You laugh, “Thank you, Gally.” Your own arms wrap around him too, his smell of wood and sweat and dirt comforting you for some reason.

“And you’re an amazing cook.”

You giggle into his chest.

“I’m not kidding! The kitchen would be lost without you. Besides, your custard tarts are incredible.”

You shove him playfully, “Oh really? Your true colours are showing, Gally. Now I know your  _real_ intentions of befriending me.”

“Oh, come off it, Y/N.”

You laugh and keep playing along, “Nope! Our short lived friendship is over. No more hugs, and definitely no more custard tarts for you.”

Instead, he pulls you back in again by wrapping his arms around your waist, “I couldn’t care less about the custard tarts, just please don’t say that we can’t hug anymore.”

You blush bright red, so you hide it by burying your face into his chest. “You’re a real big shank, you know that?” Your voice is muffled by his shirt.

“A big, hunky shank.”

You both sigh after your fit of laughter, and Gally rests his chin on top of your head. “Want to know something?” He asks softly.

“Sure.”

“I befriended you because I saw the same struggle in you that I had, and I didn’t want you to get hurt because of it.”

“Wanna know why I befriended you, Gally?”

“Sure.”

“Not only for your hunky manliness,” He chuckles again at this, “But because you actually care. And because I like your smile, and I like it more when you smile because of me.”

He lifts his head off of your head and looks down at you, “You like my smile?”

“It haunts me.”

He raises an eyebrow.

“It does! Today even! When that guy said those horrible things to me, I wanted to really punch him right in the face but then I saw your smile and I remembered that disappointing you was way worse than backing down from a fight.”

He smiles, “Really?”

“Really.”


	4. How Do You Say 'I Love You'?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Unrecognised feelings for Gally surface when something changes in your friendship.

“Gally?” You ask, slightly innocent sounding, although everyone in the Glade could never use the word innocent and Y/N in the same sentence. “Do you think you could build me a ukulele?”

Gally turns to you, first surprised but then slightly amused, “Hmm, probably not.”

Your sweet somewhat persuasive smile drops into a frown, “Why not?”

He drops to a crouch and gathers a few logs into his arms, “One, I’m busy. Two, you annoy me.” He lifts the pile of logs up as he stands up, and then makes his way over to the larger pile of wood.

You follow behind him like a lost puppy, trying to keep up with his long strides, “Oh please, you’re just piling up wood for the bonfire, anyone could do that!” You watch as he throws the logs onto the pile and flinch a little when a deafening crack echoes through the Glade, “And I do not annoy you, not one bit. You just don’t know a good thing when you see it.”

“Ha-ha.” His voice is full of sarcasm and grumpiness, but you just ignore his moody self, it’s not like he’s never not moody anyway. “I’ll make a deal with you.”

You instantly smile, “I’m listening, Captain Gally.”

He frowns for just a moment, “Don’t ever call me that again.”

“Yes sir, Captain Gally.”

He puts his hands on his hips, but for once in his life he doesn’t push on to lecture at how much you annoy him and how disrespectful you are to everyone else but yourself, “You, and you alone, can move these logs while I get started on your ukulele.”

“What?” You gasp, staring back at the logs behind you, “I can’t lift them!”

He raises his eyebrows, “I remember a certain someone saying that ‘anyone could do that’.”

You cross your arms over your chest and frown, staring at your feet for a moment as you think. “You promise to make me a ukulele if I lift them?”

“Promise.”

“Fine!” You walk away from Gally and reach the pile of firewood. It hasn’t been chopped yet which only makes it harder for you. You grab one end of a log and pull it out from the pile. You proceed to drag it along the grass, stopping abruptly to take a breather.

Newt appears out of nowhere and bends down to pick up the other end of the log but you snap at him immediately, “No! I have to do this alone.”

Newt raises an eyebrow as he looks at you suspiciously, “…Why?”

You wipe the sweat from your forehead and then lift up the log again before using most of weight to drag it across the ground, “Because, Gally said he will make my ukulele if I did this –all by myself.”

Newt let’s a laugh escape his lips before shaking his head, “He is one cheeky bugger.”

You drop the log again and squeal when it almost hits your toes, you jump back in fright, but what Newt said makes you wonder, “Why? I mean, it is a little unfair but-

“Gally doesn’t know the first thing about making instruments.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Unfortunately, I’m not.”

“That damn shank!” You run from the log and Newt, your wild eyes searching the Glade for the slinthead who made you look like a fool. You spot him with his Builder friends on a picnic table, his feet up and a nice, cold drink in one hand. You sprint towards him, and the shock that overcomes his face makes you grin.

“Uhh –Y-Y/N, you done already?”

“Oh Gally, sweet, sweet Gally.” You look down at him with your hands on your hips, your voice very over-dramatic, “That was very rude of you.”

He only smirks, and shrugs, “Sorry?”

You glare down at him, and just as he is about to take another sip of his icy drink you snatch it off of him. “Hey thanks!” You take a mouthful and then walk away from the table of Builders as you hear their echoes of laughter fill the Glade. You turn around to see Gally staring after you, but unlike with others, he does not hunt you down. You smile.

* * *

You and a few volunteers help start the bonfire as the night falls over the Glade, leaving a crisp, cool air to chill your skin. You ditch the now chopped up wood into the pile and gather some kindle for it too.

You bend down to pick up bits of twigs and things to help start the bonfire when a pair of feet crunch over the area you are searching. By the boots and the smell of the boy, you already who has come to greet you. “Hey, Gally.”

“Wow, Y/N. I didn’t think you could carry all of those twigs! You sure are strong!” He scoffs and then proceeds to laugh at his own joke.

You stand up, although you’re still a head shorter than him at least, and stare up at him, “You’re real funny.”

He nods, “Oh, I know that.” You tilt your head at him, which for some reason makes him look nervous or uncomfortable. You can’t tell which. He shifts his eyes, “Why are you staring at me like that?”

You smirk, “Like this?” Whilst you keep your stare you put two of your fingers onto his chest and let them walk along his skin, “Am I making you nervous, Gally?”

He immediately swipes at your fingers with his hand, brushing them off of his chest, “Cut it out, slinthead.”

“Aw but you’re such a babe,” You wink at him and see the blush crawl onto his neck and cheeks.

But he doesn’t reply, instead he only looks at you as if you are being totally unbelievable and inappropriate. You, however, don’t stop there. You place your hands onto his shoulders and slide them around his neck as you step in closer to him and then you sneakily raise one of your hands above his head and drop your kindle onto his head. “Kisses,” you blow him a kiss and then walk away from him with a smirk on your face.

“You’re such a shank, Y/N!”

“I know, sweetheart!”

* * *

Suddenly, as Frypan amazingly declares that he’s whipped up some dessert, Gally ditches a chocolate chip muffin into your lap. You stare at it for a moment, as if you’re frozen from shock, and look back up at him in disbelief.

“Sorry about… for… for not making you a damn ukulele.”

You smile and he sits back down in his seat beside you, “Did you just say sorry?”

“Don’t push it, Y/N.” He growls, before biting into his muffin.

You scoot over to him, your face incredibly close to his, “Aw, you apologised to me!”

“I’m seriously warning you…”

You throw your arms around his neck and squish your cheek up to his cheek, “You are forgiven!”

“Get off me.”

“You’re a beautiful shank, you know that?” You press, loving the rise you get out of him.

“Please stop touching me, right now.”

You let go of his face, a smirk evident on your lips, “It’s okay, I know deep down you love me.”

“Why would I ever love an ugly shank like you?”

You smile wickedly, “Because you’re ugly too.”

Suddenly Minho stands, he looks between the both of you with menacing eyes, “I swear, if you keep bickering with each other like a damn ol’ marry couple again I am going to throw myself into the fire.”

You open your mouth but close it again instead of talking back, although you do giggle to yourself at what he says. It’s sort of cute to you that Minho thinks you and Gally could ever be like a married couple. You gain a glare from Gally as you giggle, but that only makes your smile wider.

* * *

The way Gally behaves around you changes, which you notice straight away. You’re used to his grumpy remarks and the way he tries to distance himself from you, but lately it’s almost as though he somewhat tries to be closer but at the same time further away than ever before.

You sling your arms around Gally’s neck before jumping onto his back, he’s startled at first but immediately his hands unwrap yours and he shakes you off his back. “I… Maybe another time.”

You stare after him as he slumps away, not once looking back at you. Usually he would tell you to bugger off or call you a slinthead, but continue walking as if you weren’t even on his back. You start to wonder, as you make your way over to the Homestead, if it was something you had said to him?

It happens time and time again, over and over, and only now do you feel a spark of courage to do something about it. Your friendship… your closeness with him is something you always cherished, so having it taken away, being awkward and unlike usual, makes you realise how much you really did care for Gally.

“Gally?” You shout, almost furious. He looks over at you for only a moment before looking away again.

His voice comes out shaky, “What?”

“First of all, stop being a slinthead. And I don’t mean slinthead I mean  _slinthead_ , no joking this time buddy.”

He looks at you in utter confusion, “What are you on about?”

“What’s wrong with you lately? Did I do something to upset you?”

“I… uh…”

“There you go with your vague answering, just tell me!”

“I can’t just… just leave it, please?”

“No!” You stomp your foot, your hands on your hips, “I’m not going to just leave it. I care about you, so if I’ve hurt you, I want to know how. I want to apologise.”

“You don’t understand-

“Then make me understand!”

“You haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Then why are you-

“I think I love you!” His eyes are shut, his fists balled by his sides. You watch as his chest goes up and down at a desperate pace, it’s almost like you can hear his heart beat within.

“So you naturally thought to… to what? Shut me out?”

“I-

“I thought I hurt you Gally! I never want to hurt you, ever. You are the first person in my life I care about, the only person I would jump in front of a Griever for. I didn’t want to lose you because of my own actions –I don’t want to lose you period.”

“What… what are you saying?” His voice is soft, honest and vulnerable.

“I’m saying…” Realization floods you; overwhelms you. “I’m saying I think I love you…”

Gally looks to his feet, embarrassed. “You’re… you’re a slinthead.”

You walk up to him and slap his cheek gently whilst saying, “Good to see you back to your normal self.” And after a small wink you kiss his cheek, watching his already pink cheeks grow brighter.


	5. Insomniac

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: You have nightmares, intense ones that seem to shadow something from your past but you can’t quite remember what. But maybe you are able to find comfort in another fellow insomniac…

You wake up, like you’ve been physically thrown across the room. Unfortunately, you land on your back, your legs twisted and tangled up in the sheets from your bed. You blink and try to figure out where you are… or where you were, before you fell out of bed.

But the dreams that haunted you, the flashing of green and blue, the groans of cracked-skin men and woman were but a distant picture in your mind… soon to slip back inside the part of your brain that is forever locked to you.

You raise your arms over your head, your hands sliding against the wooden floor, trying to find something to help you get detangled from your bed sheets; but it’s no use. You blink more, trying to regain the sense of being able to see in the pitch black darkness that has enveloped your room.

You soon give up, surrendering to the enemy of blankets and the darkness of your room. You lie there, sick of the sweat that seems to pool around you often when you’re sleeping in bed. Sick of the heat outside and in. You wipe the droplets from your forehead, you tried everything like sleeping in only a singlet and undies tonight, but nothing has worked. You just must be prone to nightmares, no matter the temperature.

Suddenly there is a knock on your door, and when you don’t reply, it swings open only slightly. “Y/N?” You recognise his voice; Gally. But you’re surprised he’s here at your door, he rarely ever speaks to you and when he does it’s reminding you of the work you have to do.

He continues to push the door open, “I’m sorry for just barging in but I heard a noise…” The light from the hallway outside, which is bare and weak, flickers past him and spills into your room. Suddenly you can see properly, and you can also see the confusion plastered on his face.

“You’re not dead, are you?”

You giggle faintly, “I’m not dead, just a little tangled,” you gesture to the sheets still wrapped around your legs.

“Why… why are you on the floor?” He seems a little alarmed and uncertain still, but nevertheless he comes to your aid and frees your limbs from the blanket prison.

“You’re asking me?”

He swallows, nervously or out of irritation? You can’t choose. “Well, yeah, since you’re the one on the floor.”

You get up from the floor as Gally does and ignore the look he gives you, as well as the fact that he stares at the lack of clothing you have on. “I don’t know; I often wake up in that position.” You gather the sheets up in your arms and dump them onto your bed. You then go over to the window and open it fully, a somewhat cool breeze blowing against your sweaty slicked body.  

Gally hesitates, you don’t see it but you feel it. However, he surprises you yet again by coming to stand in front of the window beside you, “Nightmares?”

You look up at him suddenly, and then back out the window. The dark sky shadows the green grass, making it look like an ocean instead of a field. “I think so… but every time I wake up I can never remember what it was.” You laugh, push your hair out of your eyes, “Maybe I’m just messed up or something.”

Silence settles between you two, but only for a moment. “I have them too, nightmares.”

You swallow, realising that your throat is intensely dry and in need of moisture. You reach for the bottle of water beside your bed and swallow a mouthful, “Do you remember them?”

He sighs, “Sometimes… sometimes I don’t.”

“What are they of?”

At first he doesn’t answer, and you see the haunted look in his eyes and suddenly wish you hadn’t asked.

But instead of delving into his nightmares, unleashing the horror that he sees, he simply shakes his head. “You’re lucky, Y/N.”

You frown, “How?”

“You don’t remember them when you wake up.” He places a fallen pillow back in its place on top of your bed, “Goodnight.”

You turn after him and watch him leave, “Goodnight,” your voice soft and light, so light that it seems to drift away with the breeze.

* * *

Burnt taste.

Ashen, dried skin.

Dead. Dead. Dead. Rotten smell, yellow faces.

They call out to you, arms stretched and eyes full of dread and desperation.

_You have to help them get better._

The next night you find yourself struggling to breathe out in the hallway. You shake, your eyes watering and your heart pounding incredibly within your chest. You’ve never woken up outside of your room before, and the shock of it only makes whatever you’re feeling worse.

You try to move, you try to just crawl back into bed and hope for some kind of sleep, something better than this, but you cannot move. Your body is stuck. Your mind is screaming at you, and your lungs are desperately sucking in more and more oxygen but it never seems to be enough.

“Y/N! Y/N, what’s wrong?” Thomas’ voice calls out to you, Newt by his side. You don’t feel the tears until you see them drip onto the floor, your vision blurring.

“Get Gally!” You shout, in so much effort that you think you feel your throat close up. You don’t know why he came to mind, you don’t know why you said his name, you only know that he’s the only one who can help.

A few seconds later, after feeling the vibrations of footsteps clambering up the stairs, Gally pulls your face up to his as he calls your name over and over and over… He’s confused; it’s clear. He probably wonders why you asked for him, why you called out for him in the middle of the night instead of accepting help from Thomas and Newt. As his voice starts to drawl out longer, you can’t see him anymore, his face distorted. The colours mixing and leaking like a watercolour portrait.

You feel his arms wrap around your body, your wet face pressed into his chest. Sobs shake through your body, but the sound of his voice and the touch he gives calms you like nothing else you’ve ever known. Suddenly your breathing starts to calm and the heaving of your chest slows… His voice becomes clearer and clearer, and you hang onto his every word as if it’s your lifeline. “Y/N, it’s okay. Everything is okay, you’re okay. It wasn’t real, it wasn’t real.”

You curl up into yourself, but Gally still holds onto you.

“Is she alright?” Newt asks, voice in a mere whisper.

Thomas shrugs, “Gally? What happened?”

His grip tightens only slightly, and you feel the warmth of his protectiveness wash over you. “She… she had a nightmare.”

Newt sighs, “Jeez,” he reaches down and places a hand on your shoulder out of comfort, and then converses quietly with Thomas and Gally.

Gally helps you back into bed, and as you lay there you feel the mattress dip with his weight as he sits on the edge of your bed. You see him, a silhouette almost. For a second you feel the fear of sleep overcome you and your hand twitches, you suddenly don’t want Gally to leave you at all.

He holds your hand; warmth surrounds your skin. He’s not going anywhere, for now.

When you wake up again it’s not yet morning. You look to a wristwatch that Thomas gave you, one of the old watches the Runners used a long time ago before the glass had become cracked. Its time is still accurate but just a tad harder to read; something that could kill a Runner in seconds.

It reads 3.00 am. You still have three hours until sunrise. You take in a breath: breath after breath after breath. There’s no way you’re going to be able to sleep again, even if tiredness tries to seduce you back into bed. You can’t let those… those nightmares back into your mind. Even if you don’t remember them after you wake, you can’t let them in for the mere seconds they exist.

You open the window again hoping to calm your nerves with some fresh air. You scan the outside, sleeping Gladers whistling back in sleepy satisfaction. Suddenly you spot someone walking along the line of the forest, and you know who it is without even trying to get a proper look: Gally.

The slumped shoulders, the jet black hair. The bigness in size. Like a lonesome giant roaming the Earth in seek of peace; something that neither you or him are able to achieve. But does any of the Gladers have peace? Yes, they can sleep. And maybe a lot of them  _aren’t_ riddled with nightmares to the point of not being able to sleep: not wanting to sleep. But everyone here cannot access their life before The Maze. Everyone wishes their lives were different.

You pull on some pants and shoes, grab a torch, and then exit the Homestead after Gally. He helped bring calmness to you, maybe you can do the same for him. It’s a long shot. It doesn’t make sense. Like you said earlier, you’ve barely talked to Gally; you don’t know him. But maybe you need to know him.

He soon catches on that you’re following him, or more like trying to catch up with him (but with those long legs of his, how could you?). He turns, a hand raised over his face as your torch hits his eyes, “Y/N?”

“Hey.” You walk to catch up to him, and then start imitating his pace as you both walk onwards.

“Can’t sleep?” He asks, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jumper.

“I slept perfectly fine after… after what happened.” You tuck a strand of hair behind your ear and try to force the shakiness away from your voice, “I just woke up too early, and after what happened, I don’t think I want to try and sleep again.”

“You don’t remember the dream you had?”

You shake your head as you say, “No, I don’t. I remember feeling overwhelmed and panicked, I guess that’s why I woke up panicking like I did.” You breathe in the night air; it keeps you calm and collected. “Every time I…” You stop, not sure if you should confide in Gally with your issues.

“Every time you…?”

You sigh, “Look, I don’t know why I called after you tonight. I mean,” You strain to step over a fallen tree, “I mean, I don’t really know you because we’re not really friends, so I don’t want to bother you with all my shit, you know?”

“It’s okay, you can talk to me.”

You look over at him as he looks at you, the green flash in his eyes reminding you of something… but it’s not clear what. Trust? “Every time I have a nightmare I try so  _hard_  to find what those things were, what I dreamt about but… They vanish. It’s like my mind is teasing me, giving me little bits of information every night and then locking them away so I can never think about them again.”

“I know what it feels like.” Gally looks up to the sky and you wonder, what kinds of things has he been through? Why would someone like Gally have nightmares? Why are you both so similar but so different?  
“But I feel so relieved when I wake up and can’t remember what was in my dreams.”

“What have you… What have you seen, Gally?”

Gally stops walking. It’s so abrupt and immediate that you have to walk back a few steps so you’re in line with him again. He doesn’t look at you though, and you’re scared that you said the wrong thing. “Gally?”

“I don’t… I don’t want to talk about it.”

“It’s okay,” you touch his arm and flinches away. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up stuff you don’t want to think about.”

“I know, I…” He walks back to the fallen tree and sits down, you follow him and sit beside him. The cool night air now covering you both like a blanket. You underestimated the temperature of tonight; a sudden contrast to last night’s heat.   
“I see things sometimes that I don’t ever want to see again, that I don’t ever want anyone else to see,” he pauses and rubs his face with his hands out of stress. “But I just want to sleep.” Suddenly his head falls into his hands, and the tears leak from his eyes whether he wants them to or not. “I swear, it’s been days since I last slept, even if it was just a little.”

“I’m so sorry Gally, and here I am complaining…” You take him into your arms, his face pressed against your shoulder.

His muffled voice whispers, “I close my eyes and it all comes flooding back.”

You both walk for a while more, he doesn’t let you in on the dreams that he has, and that could be a good thing. But you think that if he shared the load of these horrific dreams then maybe he might get some sleep.

You reach your room, Gally standing in the entrance to bid you goodnight. He turns to go but you reach out for him, “I can’t stand being alone with my thoughts anymore.”

You sit on your bed and talk with him, you learn about Gally. You learn that maybe he does seem like an insensitive selfish person sometimes, but that’s only because he uses that to protect himself from everyone else. You learn that he does not easily talk about stuff, but with every second he spends talking to you, you can see that hard wall breaking away; slowly but surely.

You talk into the night until you both fall asleep to each other’s warmth and steady heartbeats.

* * *

You wake up at 9 in the morning and welcome the beautiful sun that seeps into your room. You smile, another good sleep. You turn and see Gally beside you, his breathing calm and body curled towards you. His eyes slowly open and blink against the light that fills you room, a smile spreads across his lips, “We actually slept?”

“I think we did.”

“I am never leaving this bed.”

“Well,” you start, stretching up to the sky, “We have work to do, can’t blow off a day of work in the Glade now can we?”

He chuckles, “Guess you’re right…” He rolls off the side of the bed and heads towards the bedroom door, “You know, I’ll be back tonight, right?”

You raise an eyebrow at him.

“No way am I sleeping downstairs again with those smelly shanks.” He twists the doorknob and pulls the door open, “You know what?”

You try to hide the smile that threatens to appear, “What?” You’ve never seen Gally in such a happy mood before, you almost feel a sudden sense of pride that he could be happy because of you.

“I think we just became sleep soul-mates,” he waves you goodbye and winks too, “I’ll see you tonight then sleeping buddy!”

You hear the Gladers downstairs applaud as he steps off the stairs; you shake your head as you make your bed, but you’re thankful for this new hope. Maybe the Glade won’t be as dreary and hard as you thought it would.


	6. Clumsy For You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: You're shy and a little awkward, and definitely clumsy. But that doesn't stop you from talking to the one boy you want to most: Gally. And when he helps you after a fall, you both grow closer than ever before.

It was a warmer day in the Glade, at least compared to the past week. The changes of weather in the Glade were usually abrupt and never foreseen, so when you got the day off from cooking you were thankful that at least the weather didn’t keep you inside the Homestead.

However, as the morning came and went, you found yourself becoming irritably bored. And in that moment, you finally understood the importance of work.

Not only do you find yourself feeling very bored, but you also find that Gally does not have the day off from working, and you can’t help but feel slightly disappointed at that. Usually you’ll try to hang out with him as much as possible, without seeming too interested, you don’t know why but apparently that feels like some kind of social rule. Maybe before you were in the Glade.

But because you’re kind of shy, at least a little more than average, you usually struck out. You’ll talk to him about the Glade and about other Gladers, discuss job complaints, and then move on and do other stuff. You’ve realised that Gally isn’t very sociable, so he doesn’t like to hold onto pointless conversations… and you understand that. You hate small talk; you’d rather talk about more important things… but you feel very limited. With only the Glade as your environment, and the fact that you seem to close up a little every time Gally is around… is rather frustrating.

After a quick lunch, some kind of meat and cheese sandwich, you take a seat underneath a tree with a pad of paper and pencils. You welcome the cool shade, and take the pad into your hands as you start sketching down odd things about the Glade. You’re not an amazing artist, but you can get down the correct shapes and tone, and once you finish a particular sketch it is quite easy to see what it’s supposed to be.

After a while of sketching, the Builders move in closer to you as they map out an area for a new shower block. The older showers are quite small, and because new Gladers arrive every month, its slowly becoming too busy for everyone to use. And now that there are the odd girls arriving every few months, Alby seems to think that personal hygiene must become a priority.

You watch as they use battered logs to outline the area, as they discuss how big it should be and what it should feature. How it will connect to the water pumps, where the entrance should be etc. Gally seems to stand back a little, more so watching than ordering, maybe he’s ready to give the other Builders a go at figuring things out for themselves. You notice his worn face and tired eyes; you sketch this down as he watches the others.

Minutes go by before a voice calls out to you, “Hey girlie, could you move out of the way for us?” A Builder looks at you from a couple of metres away expectantly, and instead of replying you start collecting up your things.

Gally moves around him, and with a growl to his voice he says, “Next time use her name, its Y/N.” He eyes you for a moment, with those green piercing eyes, and then moves back to helping out the Builders.

You hold onto your pencils and pad in your arms as you pass them, still watching curiously, and as you come to cross over a log, you don’t lift your foot high enough. Immediately, you come crashing down over the log, your things spilling all over the place on the grass in front of you. You go beet red, hating that you’ve become a spectacle in mere seconds.

“You guys keep going,” Gally comes rushing towards you, his eyes lit up in urgency, “Hey, you okay?”

You wave him off quickly, shying away at his touch on your arm, “I-I’m fine.” You stand up from the ground as you brush the grass and dirt off your legs.

Gally bends down and starts picking up your pencils, and as his hand glides over your pad you watch as it suddenly stops. You stare at the sketch for a moment before realising what it is, and you panic. Your heart beating fast, you feel the strange glance he shoots at you before he picks it up.

Without even asking, he flips through some of the pages, and you just stand there quietly, trying to get a hold of yourself.

He pauses, closes the pad, and hands it back to you, “Those are some good sketches.”

You bite the inside of your cheek and find yourself staring down at the grass.

“I mean, you managed to get my ugly mug down pretty well,” he jokes, cracking a bit of a smile.

You jump to his own defence, “You’re not ugly, Gally!” You go wide eyed, and suddenly just wish you couldn’t speak at all sometimes.

“Thanks,” he grins again, but frowns when he looks down at your legs, “Hey… you’re bleeding.”

You look down at the cut in your leg, and only now do you feel the pain. The blood oozes out, trailing down the front of your leg before pooling around your foot. You shudder out of fear and shock, and Gally instantly grabs a hold of your arm in case you faint. He turns to the other Builders and says he won’t be too long, and then helps you walk over to the Med-jacks.

You argue, saying it doesn’t hurt that bad, although it does, but you trying to limp away on your own does not convince Gally at all.

He stands at the entrance of the hut staring as Clint helps you into a chair. He watches worriedly as Clint tends to the wound on your leg, which must have been from the old logs they use. Gally talks to Clint as he cleans the cut, “It’s my fault really, we shouldn’t use such jaggered logs like that. The bark is quite sharp, if you go at it on the wrong angle it can really pierce the skin.” He turns to you momentarily, “I’m really sorry…”

You smile, “It’s okay Gally, I should be watching where I’m walking a little more often…”

Clint looks up, “Yeah, she’s in here every other day anyway, slipping up with the knives in the kitchen or dropping cooking equipment on her feet… burning herself accidentally or tripping over other Cooks. She practically lives here, she’s that clumsy.”

Gally chuckles a little at this, and finds a seat beside you. You want to tell him that he shouldn’t worry over you, or that he doesn’t need to waste his time staying here… but you kind of like the idea of him caring so much, so instead, you don’t say anything at all.

“Do you want to go back to your room and rest?” Gally asks, as soon as Clint finishes wrapping up your wound.

“Uh… I guess so, I can’t really do much else,” You start getting up from the chair when Gally instantly puts his arm around your waist, helping you to walk easily over to the Homestead.

Once there you speak up, “You… You shouldn’t really waste your time with me Gally, I’m sure you’ve got plenty of work to do. Besides, we’re practically at my room, I’m sure I can handle a few stairs—

Gally continues walking forwards, “You’re not wasting my time, I want to help you. Plus, there’s no way I’m letting you crawl up those stairs by yourself.”

You frown a little, thinking you were being selfish for letting him help you so much, “But—

“No buts, Y/N.”

He walks you up the stairs towards your room, and even helps you sit onto your bed. When his arms are away from you, you feel a slight longing for it to be around you again.

He puts your pad onto your bed too, and before he walks off down the stairs again he says, “I really like those drawings by the way. I mean, I know it’s just the Glade and all but you sketch it in a way that’s really interesting to look at.”

“Thanks, Gally.”

“And… I saw some of those plans too.” He sits on the edge of your bed, and you suddenly feel a little self-conscious. “I think that map of the new shower block you drew makes a lot of sense, and would save a lot of arguing between the guys out there.”

You look down at your hands, “You saw that?”

He sheepishly grins, and you’re surprised he’s been so interactive with you today. “It’s a good idea.”

“Yeah, but I’m not a Builder, so I wouldn’t really know…”

“It’s smart and inventive, I like it. And with your permission, I’d like to use it.” He smiles somewhat sincerely, and suddenly your heart lurches for this boy, and it kind of scares you.

“Okay.” You smile softly, and he gives you a nod.

“I’ll go give them the sketch, then.” He rips out the page from your pad and heads over to the hallway, “I’ll be back, though.”

“You don’t need—

He glances back at you, “My log, my fault. I’ll be back.”

Gally keeps true to his word, and in less than twenty minutes, he’s back beside your room, watching you sketch more of his face, at his request of course. Well, only half.

“Why are you sketching my face again?” He pouts, watching as your hands move the pencil over the paper in short, messy lines.

“Because I like it.” You’d usually freak out if something like this managed to slip out, because let’s face it, you’re as clumsy with your words as you are with your feet. But you don’t seem to mind as much this time around, maybe it’s because of the way Gally looks at you when you said it.

He moves closer to you, and you breathe in the slightly familiar smell of grass and wood. “Well, for the record, I like your face too.” He blushes deeply, “Wow that sounded less cliché in my head.”

You laugh, and look over at him, “I like cliché.”

He smiles again, “What else do you like?”

“Cooking, sketching, watching the sun go up and down, the stars.” You think a little more, there isn’t much to say, really, you wonder what you liked before the Glade. “Bonfire nights. What about you?”

“Building, wrestling, bonfire nights… Talking to you.”

You raise an eyebrow, “I always though you kinda hated it when I talked to you.”

“What!?”

“Didn’t I annoy you?”

“No!” He looks at you in disbelief, “I thought  _I_  was annoying you.”

“You’re kidding.”

“You always seemed a little quiet, so I thought you didn’t like to talk much generally, and so when I tried I thought it irritated you.”

You shake your head, laughing, “Gally, I thought the exact same about you!”

“Wow, I’m a dumb shank.”

You nudge him in the side, “So am I then.”

“We’re both dumb shanks.”

“The absolute dumbest!”

He shakes his head and lays back a little, “So all this time, you actually… kinda liked me talking to you?”

“Very much so.”

“Wow.” He pauses for a moment, and you find him closer than before, your head practically against his shoulder, your left arm against his right. “Man, am I glad you tripped over today.”

You start laughing and he immediately starts apologising, “I  _so_ didn’t mean it like that! I mean, if you hadn’t, I never would have known you thought much of me! I’m so sorry you’re hurt, I’m such an idiot. I really do need to fix those logs. It’s not just you, you know, everyone gets cut up on those damn things. I am so sorry!”

You shut his rambles up with a quick, soft kiss on his lips, something you thought you could never ever do. But something you’ve thought of doing for a while. Something Gally thought of doing too. And you don’t regret it, especially when you see the blush on Gally’s cheeks and the smile tugging at his lips.

You breathe, “I’m glad I tripped over too, you shank.”


	7. Separation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: You're separated from Gally during the Griever attack on the Glade

Today was like most days in the Glade, you woke up and headed over to the Med-jack hut and attended to the Gladers who routinely slice their hands open or drop things on their own feet. But throughout the morning and afternoon, there was something… off. Different. No one spoke about it but you all felt it together. You would have that knowing look.

Fear.

The Glade had been changing lately, things happened that weren’t supposed to. Rules were being broken, and people were changing. It was a silent day, other than the breeze in the leaves and tall grass. The Glade was alive, but silent. You should have known that something was going to happen.

But you didn’t.

Gally kisses you on the edge of your mouth, earning a heart-warming smile from you. You grab his dinner plate and stack it upon yours, “I have a meeting with the med-jacks… but I’ll see you after?”

He scrunches his mouth up, “A meeting? Really?”

You shrug your shoulders, “Hey, I’m not the Keeper, I don’t set these meetings up I just have to be there.”

He leans forward for another kiss, but you rest your finger on his lips teasingly, “Don’t make me late, Captain.”

“Don’t call me that,” he almost growls through pressed lips, he reaches for your hand, but you move away instantly. “Aw, Y/N.”

“I’ll see you after, Gally.” You wave over at him as you walk towards the hut, and he waves back somewhat moodily.

You reach the hut in seconds, but your engulfed immediately by a hurry of words, “Y/N, great!” Clint shuffles through some medical supplies, “I need you to go over to the Maze entrance, apparently there’s been some sort of… incident. I’m short on med-jacks at the moment, so I need you to hurry over there ASAP.” He says it quickly, not looking up from his own matter. A Slicer you immediately recognise sitting in the chair, his leg propped up with a wide, open gash down the side of the muscle. You wince at the blood oozing out of the wound, and quickly find a bag of everything you may need.

You sling it over your back and jog towards the Maze entrance, however you notice a sequence of shouts and alarming voices raise as you near the crowd. A deafening scream resounds, and the word “ _Griever!”_  is shouted as the crowd disperses and the whirring echoes. You run towards the entrance, but the injured are taken by the sudden mass of Grievers in seconds.

You freeze as you watch the monsters roll out of the entrance and into the Glade, your once safe- haven. You dash to your right and roll into a bunch of thick bushes, hoping your movements were too minor for the Grievers to catch you in their sight.

You huddle up close and try to breathe calmly and quietly, the Grievers click and whir before rolling out forwards heading towards the centre of the Glade. You sigh in relief, but you know the night is not yet over. You need to find the others and tell them before it’s too late, but how can you without the Griever’s spotting you? What if it’s already too late to even warn the others?

You think of Gally immediately, and a punch of worry hits your stomach. All you can do is just hope that he’s okay. But you think about him being trapped in the Homestead with everyone else as the Grievers take over, and your hope quickly vanishes.

* * *

_Gally’s POV_

Gally watches you go and sighs lovingly, although he’d make sure that he’d never do that around any of the other Gladers. He doesn’t often like to admit it, but he is quick to miss you, especially as you both work in two very different jobs throughout the day; only getting the night to spend together.

Gally walks off in the other direction after you disappear into the night and thinks about heading up to your room. Usually you spend some time by the fire before going up to bed, but tonight he’s sure that you’ll be too exhausted to hang about the others. So, he makes his way over towards the Homestead, and as he climbs the stairs he gets a few knowing wolf-whistles from his fellow Builders. One look from Gally shuts their mouths, but secretly he finds their teasing amusing.

He reaches your room and walks over to your window to let in a breeze on this particularly warm night but stops short when he sees a crowd of Gladers by the Maze entrance. Gally tries to find a source of mishap, maybe there’s a brawl or a Runner hasn’t returned, but finds nothing and grows confused.

In a matter of seconds though, the crowd separates leaving an injured boy behind. Gally spots you running over towards the boy and watches as you freeze up. He finds what you’re staring at, and his heart instantly races as the panic starts to seep in. _Grievers_. In the Glade.

Gally dashes towards the stairs and is at the bottom in what seems like three leaps, worried Gladers stare at him in confusion. He pushes forward towards the exit, but it is soon blocked up by the oncoming crowd of screaming, panicked kids.

Gally attacks the crowd instantly, trying to push through the sea of bodies, but he’s pushed back again and again. Further and further to the back of the building. The image of the Griever entering the Glade, and the knowledge that you’re out there alone and unprotected, fills his mind to the point of panic.

“You don’t want to go out there,” someone cries, tears welling in their eyes, “the Grievers are in the Glade!”

But Gally ignores their warnings and continues to try and push his way out, “Let me through, dammit!”

Somebody touches his shoulder, “Gally, what are you doing? They said there are Grievers out there!”

He shakes his head frustratingly, “Y/N is still out there!”

The doors are pushed shut and barricades block anyone from trying to get in, but more importantly, trying to get out.

Newt clasps a hand over Gally’s arm, “You can’t go out there, mate, it would be suicide.”

“But she was near the entrance, Newt! She’s not safe! I  _have_ to—

A Builder whom Gally knows quite well shakes his head, “Gally, you can’t leave. We’re not opening those doors again until it’s safe.”

Gally immediately towers over the guy, “I  _will_ be leaving, and I  _will_ find her. You can’t stop me.”

“Yes, we can.”

He hesitates, looking to the doors and back to the crowd behind him, “Shuck this,” he rams against the doors, but the rest of the Builders pull him back by the arms. Gally is strong, but not strong enough to fight against eight or ten stocky built guys who work the hammers and saws all day. But he still fights anyway, because he knows that if you’re gone from the Glade for good, he would never forgive himself. He would never know another happy day, ever.

* * *

_Your POV._

You trail back to the Med-jack’s hut. Your steps careful and light, hidden by bushes and greenery on the edge of the Glade. You manage to get inside the hut after quiet coaxing with Clint who was manning the entrance.

“Y/N…” he hugs you immediately, “when I heard the screams I…”

You smile and see that Jeff and a few others made it back here safely too. “We’ll be okay, Clint.”

“What if they don’t leave?”

You bite the inside of your cheek, nerves seeping in at every angle. “They will, they have to.” You think of Gally stuck in the Homestead… at least he’s safe. He has to be.

When the sun rises the next morning, you’re quick to wake up. There’s yelling, a lot of it, echoing through the Glade. Crying. But there’s no sign of the awful clicks and whirs of the Grievers, no black shadowy monsters, the enemy has left.

The door to the hut is beat down in an instant, and you squeal at the sudden loud noise from it. You shield your eyes from the sunlight that pours into the room, a tall figure stands in the doorway. “Y/N…”

You blink away the barest of sleep in your eyes, “Gally!” You run to him immediately, and he sweeps you up into his arms. But the exhaustion and fear that wrecked both of your bodies and left you slightly unstable and weak sends you both to the ground in a flash. But you don’t mind, and neither does he.

“Y/N, I tried to leave the building, I tried—

“What?” You look down at him, confused. “You’re a slinthead if you think you could’ve found me.” You straddle his waist now, a frustrated look in your eye, somewhat of a glare, “Don’t you ever try to help me if it puts you in danger.”

“Are you kidding? I  _saw_  you by the entrance! For all I knew, I thought you were already dead!”

You didn’t realise he saw you near the Grievers, you only thought he guessed you were in the hut because of your meeting last night.

“I was running around the Glade trying to find you all morning, I didn’t think you’d be in here. I didn’t know where you would be. I thought I was… I thought I might find you dead, Y/N.”

You kiss him, afraid to even think about living in the Glade without him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“I thought…” his voice trails, still in shock, still panicked by your separation. He looks up at you, his green eyes sparkling, he kisses you this time, his hands cupping your face as he pulls you closer to him. You melt into the kiss, the separation and worry from it leaving you in need of him. You realise something, and it almost takes you by surprise, how  _could_ you live without this shuckface?

“I’m sorry,” you mumble, but Gally only kisses you again and again.

Gally realises the few people that notice you in his arms, kissing, being all affectionate, but even now he doesn’t think of what other people might think of the pair of you two. All he cares is that you  _are_ in his arms, and not gone from him. This feeling, an intense and knowing feeling can only be described in very few words.

“Y/N, I love you.” He mumbles this between kisses, and you almost don’t hear him…

“I love you, too.”


	8. The Ghost of Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Do not read this chapter if you have not seen the new The Maze Runner film, The Death Cure. This chapter will contain movie spoilers. 
> 
> Prompt: You watched Gally die in the Maze, so why are you seeing him now on the edge of the Scorch's city?

You watch as Brenda and Thomas move forwards into the rebelling crowd, as they try to scope out the place so they can find a way inside the city. You hang back, Newt off to your left side, a careful eye on everyone else who moves with you all. Thomas may be trusting of entering groups of angry, sick people, but you aren’t. There’s always someone or something lurking, waiting to find you Munies. 

You first notice it when Newt glances back a second time, because he’s not looking at you, he’s looking at the people behind you. Masks cover their faces, protective vests over their chests and what appears to be guns at their sides. Maybe they’re soldiers, here to tame the crowd. If they are, their product of WICKED. And that means extremely bad news for all of you. 

You move further away from Newt, to your right, and keep close to the edge of the crowd. If you can blend in more to get a better look at the soldiers, maybe you can prevent them from capturing anyone. 

You turn to look, a few of the soldiers hang back, but one or two follow the others closely… You stare at one of the soldiers, the way he stands… the way he walks…

_It can’t be._

You shake your head and push that thought to the very back of your mind, you can’t lose your head, not now. You stare at his uniform, or lack of, the soldiers aren’t clothed all the same and there are no indications of belonging to WICKED.  _So, who are they?_  

Suddenly a loud noise resounds from the entrance to the city, a massive machine swings towards the crowd. You eye the machine, and when you realise what it is you let out a cry and start to push back. The machines open fire on the crowd of rebels, and you push through what feels like a sea of panicked people, everyone screaming, people falling over from wrong footing or bullets. 

You turn a corner, running by the older ruins of the outskirts, but as you get to the end of what used to be a street, a pair of rough hands grab you and shove you against an old, crumbled wall. You eye him, his mask covering his face, it’s one of the people who followed you into the crowd. He lifts you up, kicking and screaming, and pushes you into a black van. 

You sit obediently, as one of the men who sits across from you points his gun at you. Soon, Brenda and Thomas are both shoved into the van, sitting beside you. Huffing and out of breath, they stare as the other soldier sits down too. You eye him, the same thoughts from before surfacing. It can’t be him. Even though you want to look away, you can’t. 

The van starts up and you’re driving to wherever they want to take you. 

Thomas leans forward, their guns still fervently aimed at you all, “Where are you taking us?" 

There isn’t a reply. 

"Damn idiots,” you grumble, finally taking your eyes off the soldier who looks like Gally. If only he could take his mask off… but the thought of Gally still being alive is ridiculous. That’s why it can’t be, you saw him die right in front of you. You grieved in the Scorch for him. He’s gone.

The van finally halts to a stop, and the two soldiers across from you slide the van door open and order you all to hop out. You pass by the soldiers, close in proximity, and your eyes meet with the one with close shaven hair. Green and piercing eyes stare back and for the second time in your life your heart feels like its stopped beating. 

You hop out of the van and watch Gally as he walks in front of the group. You could never let go of those green eyes, there’s no chance that he  _couldn’t_ be Gally. Newt and Thomas are busy pulling Jorge off another soldier, Brenda furiously tries to calm him down before anyone is shot. Gally strides forward, ignoring your stares, and pulls Jorge off the soldier. You take this moment to your advantage and kick him in the back of the leg while grabbing a hold of his gun. He stumbles, and the force is enough to pull his gun free from his hands. 

Newt and Thomas shout as you aim the gun at Gally, fury in your eyes, emotions hitting you like a tornado. You eye him, his mask still clipped firmly over his face. But his eyes, barely visible from where you stand, tell you that he knows. That he’s realised you’re onto him. 

You try to keep your voice steady, “Take off your mask.”

Newt pipes up, wanting to keep the situation calm, “What are you doing Y/N, put the gun down!”

You shake your head, sudden tears welling in your eyes, your voice cracked with emotion, “I’m not putting this away until he takes his damn mask off!" 

Gally sighs, you watch his broad shoulders loosen, his head relax as he stares at the ground instead of you. 

Thomas raises his hands midway as he nears you cautiously, his eyes trying to find yours, but you refuse to look back at him, "Y/N, you don’t have to be scared. If they wanted us dead, they would have killed us already." 

Your hands shake slightly with the pressure, but more so with the intense feelings you have flooding your body. They don’t see him. You eye Thomas, "I’m not scared.” You glare at Gally again, watching the mask fog up with each breath he takes. “Take off your mask.”

“Y/N…” Gally says, his voice clear as day, but the others still don’t seem to  _see_ it. Thomas gives a questioning look to Newt, wondering why on earth some random out in the Scorch would know your name. 

“Do. It." 

Gally raises his hands to the edge of his mask, and with one swift movement he pulls it over his head, revealing the scarred yet recognisable face of him. Of Gally. 

You hear gasps from your people, the ones who were in the Maze, and as you anticipated, Thomas immediately jumps on top of him with blaring fists at the ready. 

"He killed Chuck!” You hear Thomas cry, as Newt pulls him away from Gally. 

You suddenly tremble, after all of this time, after escaping the Maze and seeing the Scorch… Gally, alive. You drop the gun and hear it clatter on the floor, the sound echoing through the panicked shouts of people trying to stop Thomas from ripping into Gally. You turn from the scene and force your legs to move. You haven’t cried since escaping the Maze, and you can’t deal with breaking down in front of your friends again. 

Soon, the echoing of shouting dies down as you find an empty balcony. You stop moving as you reach the bannister, the view from the building is of the city and its walls, but further away than where you were before. 

You wipe the tears from your eyes. You’ve been angry for so long that it’s been hard to just… cry. Angry that Gally killed Chuck, Minho “killed” Gally… no one stopping either of them. Angry at yourself for not protecting Gally well enough. For not staying with him until the end. You’re filled to the brim with overwhelming thoughts, intense emotions, the anger you suppressed surfaces and spills over.

You land a hard punch into the concrete wall beside the bannister. And again. And again. This time your other fist. You shout over and over, an angry cry, the pain from punching the walls seeming to let out the anger inside you. 

“Y/N!” Brenda comes up from behind and pulls you away from the wall by your arms. You thrash for a moment, but as you realise there’s no getting out of her grip you sigh in defeat. The tears really spilling now, sobs shaking your body. “Y/N…”

“I can’t believe it…” you say quietly, trying your hardest to sniff back tears. “He was dead." 

"You should come back inside.” Brenda takes your arm, careful to not hurt your damaged knuckles. “I saw a medical bay, they can patch you up.”

You reluctantly follow her back into the building, the group of you from the van now dispersed. Talking amongst yourselves or with the new people, you scan the crowd for Gally and breathe a short sigh of relief when you don’t spot him. 

Newt comes up beside you in seconds, already having stared at your torn skin, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine…” You can’t look him in the eye. Newt was there for you as best as he could be, and as best as you let him, when Gally died. He knows when you lie, he knows why you hurt yourself, because he understands. Because he’s been there, too. 

“Clearly, you’re not,” He nods over at Brenda who seems to understand his silent communication, and she let’s go of your arm and walks off towards your people. 

Newt comes with you to the medical bay, and the nurse, after much hesitation, decides to help you out. You sit on an old metal frame chair as she cleans out your wounds, and Newt doesn’t leave you. 

“You’ll have to talk to him sometime, you know, and you can’t go around tearing up your fists because you don’t know how to deal with him… being here again." 

You don’t reply at first, irritated that Newt is always so brutally honest with you, especially when you have problems to deal with. But you know you need the truth more than anything right now. "I can’t talk to him Newt, he’s… I look at him and I’m in disbelief. I can’t even process it.”

“I know, but you’re going to have to push passed it. Especially since we really need his help to get Minho back." 

You go to say something smart and witty, but you choke on your own words as Gally comes close to the bay. He doesn’t spot you, at first, but your gaped mouth and panicked, wide eyes are hard to miss. His eyes soften when they reach you, it’s like he knows that him being here is hard to understand, but then his eyes find your torn-up fists and all that calmness is gone in a flash. 

He rushes over to you immediately, "Y/N!” Newt stands between you two, knowing that this may be too soon for you still, but Gally only pushes passed him. His worried eyes trace your knuckles, “What the hell happened to you?" 

You tear up again, shaking your head, you’re still unable to speak. Gally looks between you and Newt. And only now you notice that Gally’s hands are holding yours. The nurse doesn’t seem to mind all the commotion and begins to get out her bandaging. 

Newt calmly pats Gally on the back of his shoulder and he nods at you before he leaves to join the others. Gally takes Newt’s seat and wraps an arm around your shoulders as the nurse begins to wrap your knuckles. A comfort you haven’t felt in a very long time overwhelms you, the touch of him real, him  _really_  here. Alive. So how can you be angry still?

"I missed you so much Gally– 

There was more you wanted to say, but your words are cut short by sobs. 

He holds you tighter, "I missed you too.”

“I’m sorry.”

He tucks your head under his chin as the nurse finishes up and starts to put away her medical supplies, “Don’t be." 

"We left you there.”

“But I’m here now, and you are too, and that’s all I care about." 

You wrap your arms around his torso as the tears and sobs become heavier, "I hated myself for leaving." 

He looks down at you now, "Don’t.” He carefully holds your injured hands in his, “Don’t be angry anymore. I can’t stand seeing you hurt yourself." Memories flash back from the Maze of other angry and hurting moments like this.

"Okay." 

He kisses your fingers gently, and you pull them back to wipe away your tears before kissing his lips. Again, memories from the Glade resurface, the heated kisses you shared in secret. 

"God,” he breathes, “I really have missed you.”

“Me too.”

“Don’t leave me ever again, okay? I don’t know if I could get through it again.” He smiles, but you feel how serious he really is behind those eyes. 

You squeeze him, not wanting to ever have to miss him again. “Never again.”


	9. The Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: It's always best to tell the truth, especially if it's about how you feel for someone.

“So, Y/N…” Minho leans against the entrance to the Med-jack hut as Clint bandages up your hand and wrist. “How’d you hurt your hand?” He waggles his eyebrows at you suggestively, and you roll your eyes at him instead of giving him the time-of-day.

Clint remains silent, but you know he secretly wants in on this gossip too.

Minho grins, “Fine, don’t tell me… I already know anyway.”

You glare over at him, your whole arm twitching in anticipation to use your hand again, right in Minho’s jaw. He notices your distress and decides to keep pushing it.

“Want me to refresh your memory?”

You go to leap from your chair when Clint anticipates your move, holding you down instead, “Please Y/N, don’t go injuring your hand even further.”

You ignore Clint but stop struggling against his hold, instead you just continue to death glare Minho. “If you speak one more word, I swear—

“You swear? To do what?” He taunts, an amused grin pulling at the corners of his mouth. You wish you could just tell him to piss off, but after your little outburst earlier… well, let’s just say you’re definitely on thin ice. And he must know it.

“Just slim it, Minho.”

He smiles victoriously, and Clint finishes off the bandaging. You push yourself off the chair, inspecting your wrapped-up hand. You wince slightly at the dull ache, but you’ll just have to push past it for now.

Minho steps in closer, “Want me to kiss it better?” There’s a glint in his eye, and you stare at him already knowing what he’s going to say next, “Or should I ask someone else to…”

“Alright, Minho,” you proceed to shove him outside the hut, “stop talking before I seriously hurt you.”

Minho stumbles back a little, still smiling, “Hurt me, what, with your injured hand?”

You cross your arms over your chest, “Can you just quit it already?”

“Can–   
He goes to say something else as witty as usual but stops short as his eyes widen. You follow his gaze and tense up immediately, a nervous pace to your heartbeat.

Minho pipes up immediately, of course, “Gally! Hi!” Smiling a toothy grin, you wish you could just smack it right off his face.

Gally eyes Minho for a second before nodding at him, and then his green eyes travel to yours right after, “Y/N,” his rough voice is familiar to you, but there’s something different about the way he says your name this time around. And his face… Bruised, a purple and green colour decorating his right eye. He pauses, halting right in front of you, “About before…”

You quickly interject as the nerves overwhelm you, “That guy’s a jerk, I’ve been waiting for a while to teach ‘im a lesson.” You ignore the look Minho gives you out from the corner of your eye.

Gally blinks, a sudden understanding seeping into his eyes, “Right… of course, well, thanks anyway.” He turns to go, and you see a hardened frown replacing the thoughtful expression from before.

Minho quickly nudges your shoulder, “Seriously? You’ve been waiting to smack that guy in the face for a while now? Man, you’re a bad liar, you didn’t even  _know_ that guy.”

You shrug him off, “Whatever, man.” You watch after Gally as he disappears into the Med-jack hut, so Clint can tend to his wounds too.

Minho shakes his head as he walks away, “Man, you got it  _bad_ …”

You sigh, still not tearing your eyes away from the hut, and in a quiet whisper you say, “I know.”

* * *

Gally remembers the first time he saw you. You came after him, and even though it’s only been 8 months since you arrived in the Box, it feels as though you’ve been here since the beginning. When you came to the Glade, everything changed. When you became a Glader, Gally changed.

He watches you walk after Minho, and he feels a sort of anger well up inside him. He misjudged you, again, and it’s only led to frustration;  _again_.

Clint wipes over the roughest looking tears to Gally’s skin, “What are you thinking about?”

Gally frowns, “Huh?”

Clint only smiles, “You looked deep in thought.”

“Nothing.” He says it quickly, as if he really does want to think about nothing, but he can’t help it. He always thinks about you.

“So, Y/N nailed that guy, huh?”

Gally nods, “Yeah, punched him right in the face.”

Clint chuckles, “It’s a pity she slammed him at the wrong angle.”

Gally’s eyes light up with concern, “What?” He must have completely skipped over your bandaged hand and wrist, now that he thinks about it, but how _can_ he notice anything else when looking into your eyes? He gets lost almost instantly, every time.

Clint finishes up tending to his cuts and bruises, “She sprained her wrist.”

“Oh,” Gally looks out of the hut again, as if you were still there, and then looks back to Clint, “I don’t even remember where she came from. He was on me, about to land another punch into my face, and she just came out of nowhere.” He thinks back to the memory and realises he could have been a little nicer to the guy. But you were right,  _he_ is a jerk, always has been. So, of course you weren’t helping Gally out because you might care about him or something… Like you said, you’d been waiting to teach him a lesson.

Clint eyes Gally for a moment, “Sounds like she didn’t want to see you get hurt.”

Gally pulls himself out of the chair, a tensed jaw and diversion of eyes, “Maybe,” but Gally ignores Clint’s words, he already knows the truth about why you sucker-punched the guy. “Thanks.” He nods to Clint before exiting the hut. And as he walks down towards the beginnings of a bonfire, he sighs to himself, shaking his head with his hands in his pockets, “I’ve got it bad…”

* * *

You sit next to Minho at the bonfire, trying to keep your stares at Gally to a minimal. You can’t help it though, just being around him makes you nervous, and not to mention the big, fat bruise around his eye. If only you’d gotten there a little earlier…

“You’re staring again.” Minho’s voice breaks your thoughts and you blush instantly, tearing your eyes from Gally and Ben who sit across from you and Minho.

“Look, it’s not even about  _that_.” You keep your eyes on Minho, “Look at his eye.”

“I saw it earlier.”

“I should have gotten there faster.”

Minho smirks, “Really? You got there in time to save him from another one of those bruises, Y/N, don’t go blaming yourself for the first one.”

You sigh, “I can’t believe I punched that guy.”

“Love makes you do weird things.”

You shove Minho and he laughs loudly at you, “Don’t say stupid klunk like that—

He holds up his hands, “Hey, it’s true though, isn’t it!”

You roll your eyes and fight the urge to glance back at Gally again.

“And you got a lovely thank you for it, too.”

You bite the inside of your cheek, “Did he seem weird about it?” You remember back to the way he was looking at you…

“No?” Minho laughs, “Maybe he just thought you stole his thunder. Or maybe you took his manhood away from him.”

“What?!” You shout it almost too loudly and gain a few suspicious glances from other Gladers around the bonfire, Gally included. You blush, and whisper, “What are you talking about?”

He shrugs, “You fought his battle. Maybe he wasn’t sure if he should thank you for that. Maybe he thinks others will see him as a wuss or something.”

You groan, “You’re kidding!” You rest your forehead into your hand, suddenly stressed about the impression you left on Gally after today. “Maybe I should apologise.”

“This isn’t just an excuse for you to go talk to him, is it?”

You glare at Minho, “No! I don’t want him to think I ruined his reputation…” You sigh, standing up from the grass, “I have to say sorry, I don’t want him to misinterpret what I did.”

“So, you’re going to tell him the truth?”

You eye Minho, “I…” You shake your head, “I can’t.”

“You might as well, if you’re going to clear the air about—

“Just leave it.” You almost growl at him, but Minho knows it’s a sensitive subject.

You begin to circle around the bonfire as Minho whispers a ‘good luck’. You spot Gally shoving a laughing Ben as you near them, his green eyes reflecting licks of orange from the bonfire flames. “Hi Gally…” You swallow nervously, “Can I talk to you?”

He nods and as Ben is about to open his mouth, Gally silences him with a stern look. He gets up from where he’s sitting and leads you away from the crowd and the fire, “What’s up?”

You find it hard to keep your eyes on his, but you do it anyway because this apology has to be done properly. “Gally, about the fight today, I’m really sorry…”

He stares back at you, confused. “What do you mean?”

“I feel like… today you were a bit, I don’t know, annoyed? Frustrated? Minho thought it might’ve been because I fought your battle, and I’m  _really_ sorry if that was how it seemed. I didn’t mean to just insert myself in—

Gally interrupts, “No, no, you don’t need to apologise. I didn’t take it that way at all.” His eyes linger on yours even though he has nothing else to say, and it makes your stomach flip over almost endlessly. But if he didn’t take it that way…?

 _Oh._  You swallow again, then there must be another reason why he seemed a bit different today. “So, are you okay?”

He nods, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“It must have hurt, I’ve never been punched in the face before…”

He laughs at this, and you’re a little surprised, “You do the punching but haven’t experienced it?” You laugh with him bfore he speaks again, “Jared’s an idiot, so he deserved it.”

“Jared?” You let it slip before you even realise, and you begin to panic.

“Yeah…” Gally frowns slightly, “I thought you said you knew the guy? You’ve been wanting to “teach him a lesson”—”

“Oh,  _right_ , Jared… I…” You hesitate at first, would it really be okay to lie to him now? You sigh, closing your eyes. “I guess I should apologise for something else, then.”

“What?” He doesn’t seem mad, or even alarmed, just curious.

You think back to Minho,  _might as well…_ “I didn’t know the guy at all.” You blurt it out, rushed and in a hurry, but your mind seems a little lighter, and definitely excited.

“You didn’t?” He licks his lips nervously, his green eyes darting to the side, “So why did…?” He doesn’t seem to finish his sentence, a thought, or  _something_ , seems to block the rest of his words.

You feel the nerves again, and you feel the oncoming rambles too, “Look, I saw him shove you, and you fall over, he was landing punches on you and—well…”

Gally stops your rambles with a kiss. It’s sudden and definitely takes you by surprise. But the way his hands hold you close to him, and the feel and taste of his lips… you couldn’t be happier. You kiss him back, his hands cupping your face and your hands resting against his chest. You’re not sure why or even how your conversation with him ended this way, but you’re glad it did.

He breaks away, his sparkling eyes searching yours, “You kissed me back.”

You blink, smiling softly up at him, “You kissed me first.”

“I wasn’t sure if you’d return it.” He exhales slowly, “I guess Ben was right.”

“Right about what?”

He smiles, shaking his head, “He said ‘just kiss the girl’ as you were walking up to us. ‘You never know what could happen’ kind of thing.”

“Why would Ben tell you to do that?”

He looks at the ground, “Because he knows how I feel about you.”

You find Gally’s hand in yours, coaxing him to look up at you again instead of feeling embarrassed, “Gally, how  _do_ you feel about me?”

“I…” He sighs, “I don’t even know how to put it into words.” He shakes his head, “That was lame, wasn’t it?”

Your eyes sparkle in the cool night, “No, not at all. Because I feel the same.”

He looks at you, really looks at you, and you’re not sure what he’s thinking exactly, but he seems surprised. Maybe confused. You’re not sure, all you know is that you’ve been dreaming of the day when you get to kiss him, and there’s no way you’re holding back now. You kiss him again, and he melts into it almost completely.

You take a breather from the intensity of this new kind of intimacy you’re sharing with each other, and two voices from the bonfire yell out to you, “Finally, you shanks!”

You and Gally both laugh and turn towards the voices, already knowing that they belong to the two most gossiping Runners in the Glade, Ben and Minho. In fact, you think, as you stare up at Gally’s big, green eyes and wonderful smile, you wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing was planned by the pair of them.


	10. Close to Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Set in the Death Cure, you want to help Thomas and Newt rescue Minho from WICKED, but Gally seems to try everything he can to stop you, and you can’t help but feel that there’s something else under the surface…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Heaps of Death Cure movie spoilers ahead! Do not read if you don't want the whole movie spoiled for you.

“Fine, we’ll rescue Minho from WICKED.” Gally eyes Thomas and Newt almost suspiciously, not trusting them entirely yet. Then they shift to yours, a look of sudden defiance and certainty in his eyes, “But there’s noway in  _hell_  you’re bringing her along.”

You immediately roll your eyes, a sudden  _de ja vu_  crossing your memory, “There’s noway in  _hell_  you can put conditions on this Gally, and there’s noway in  _hell_ you can tell me where I can go and where I can’t!” You frown, creating the most angry glare you can, but his piercing green eyes only glare back.

Gally crosses his arms over his chest, and huffs carelessly, “Then I’m not helping you rescue Minho.”

Thomas shakes his head, and Newt only sighs. They glance at one another and realise they’re both remembering back to the Glade, the arguing and constant fighting that went between you and Gally…

“Gally, we’re not in the Maze anymore! You can’t just put restrictions on me—

“Exactly!” Gally says, almost accidentally. You don’t understand what he means by that, but you ignore his confusing reply and open your mouth to fire back, but Thomas shuts you up immediately with a stern look.

He relaxes his blue eyes and his voice turns to reasoning, “Look, Y/N, if this is what we have to do—

“Thomas!” You interject, almost dumbfounded that he would even consider agreeing with Gally’s ridiculous request.

“Y/N.” Thomas says impatiently, “We need Gally with us so we can help Minho.” He turns to Gally, “She won’t come with us.”

Your jaw drops, “There’s no way I’m staying behind—  
But the boys simply ignore your arguing and shake on it before going to make arrangements with Gally’s group leader. You fall into a chair and let out a quiet groan of frustration, “Fine. Leave me behind.” You put your head into your hands as sudden memories of the Glade flood back. Gally was always like this with you, of course almost dying and reuniting in the Scorch wouldn’t change that; he’s always been stubborn in his ways. He just can’t get along with you that badly, that you can’t help both him and your friends?

You sigh, leaning now only on one hand. Some things just never change.

* * *

You watch them like a disappointed puppy as they prepare themselves to leave for the city. Gally, Newt and Thomas make sure their equipment and other things they have packed for the first, supposedly-quick trip are all working well. You watch as Thomas packs two backpacks, and you wonder who else is going with them, and cast a glare at Gally with every chance you can get.

Gally ignores your glares, something he managed to master within the Glade… in the first month of you being there. He slips his bag onto his back and ties his combat boot shoelaces up tightly, “So, who else is coming with us?” He says this somewhat suspiciously, staring at the extra backpack as if he was only prepared to go with Newt and Thomas.

“Well,” Thomas says quite matter-of-factly, “I thought that since we’re only going into the city to, I assume, scope WICKED’s HQ out and figure out a plan to rescue Minho, Y/N can tag along.” You see the quick smile that forms on Thomas’ lips as he chucks the extra backpack towards you.

As you catch the bag, Gally frowns immediately, “What about your promise? We shook on it!”

“Gally,” Thomas says, shaking his head, “I don’t follow your rules. As you know, I never did.” He smiles again, somewhat innocently, and you quietly slip the bag’s straps over your shoulders and ignore the heated stares at the back of your head as you walk with Newt towards the tunnels. “Besides,” Thomas calls back to him as you all make your way towards the city, “We’re not even rescuing Minho yet, so technically—

“ _Technically_ ,” Gally cuts in through gritted teeth, frustration steaming off him like fumes, “I don’t care,” he finishes with his famous, Gally growl. But he mutters something else under his breath, something like,  _better not get hurt_ , but you don’t quite catch everything he says.

“Something else you wanted to say, Gally?” You ask, as you turn your head to look behind you. He makes eye contact, but you notice his tightly set jaw and the irritation reflecting back in his angry eyes and decide to stop pushing it, for now. At least until he calms down again.

When you enter the city, you’re overwhelmed by lights and noise and… something else. A nagging, echoing feeling in the back of your head, something like similarity. These buildings, these paved streets and lights—like you’ve seen them before, but you still cannot conjure up any memories from Before. And you know you won’t ever be able to.

You glance over at Gally; he waits patiently for the rest of you to be ready to walk through the streets, like you “belong”. The grey hoodie he wears keeps his tall, muscular figure dark in the night. Before you left, you pulled on one of his hoodies too as you didn’t have anything dark enough to wear. Gally was reluctant, but he knew he had no choice but to let you wear it, for the safety of everyone.

“You shanks ready?” Gally’s Glade talk seems so unfitting now, after everything you’ve all been through, and he realizes that too. “We’ve got a bit of walking… or running to do. And we need to try and not be seen as much as possible.”

You all nod in agreement, even though personally, you’re not entirely ready for this at all.

“Keep close to me at all times,” and with this next sequence of words, he directs his attention to you, “That means you, especially. Keep up, or we’ll leave you behind.”

You bite the inside of your cheek, so you don’t say anything nasty back, right now you just need to be on good terms with Gally for this to work, otherwise… something bad will probably happen, if you’re not working together and that’s the last thing you want.

You all set off down the street, running through the less populated areas and hiding in the shadows whenever possible. You reach the corner of a street with dimly lit stores that look closed off when sudden blaring, loud sirens echo through the chilled air. The hair on the back of your neck stands up at the sound, and again, the nagging feeling from before, but all of that fizzles away as Gally grabs onto your arm and pulls you closer to him and the wall that you four lean against as you watch colourful lights flash by on some sort of vehicle, the siren louder than ever. Gally’s hand doesn’t leave your arm. Mere seconds pass before the noise begins to fade away, and only now do you realise how close you are to him.

You shake Gally off of you and whisper, “You don’t need to baby me, I can handle myself.” You’re usually quite aggressive with Gally, but you feel you may have acted out this time for no reason. Maybe it was the way he pulled you close to him as soon as danger arose. Maybe it was the weird feeling you got when his hand touched your arm.

You see Gally’s jaw clench, and you conclude that he’s holding back on what he really wants to say to you, “Whatever.”

As the sirens completely disappear into the night, Gally leads on, and this time you make your speed impossible to not notice, by running right beside the slinthead. He notices, alright, and only increases his current speed to be a few steps faster.

Out of breath and puffing heavily you say as loudly as you can without alarming anybody, “Are you trying to race me?”

“I thought you were trying to race me.”

You shake your head and ignore the weird glances you’re getting from Newt, “Too bad I don’t know where we’re going, otherwise I’d beat your shank-ass there and back, in no time.”  

Gally huffs, “Sure, Y/N…”

“I totally would!”

Thomas pipes up, as you expected sooner or later, “Guys,  _sh_.” He pauses and sneaks a glance over at Newt, and on lesser judgment decides to keep speaking, “I’m faster than both of you, so I win.” He earns the look he knew he would receive from Newt in milliseconds, a kind of look that says  _are you kidding me?_ But he ignores it and continues on talking, “Now Gally, get us where we need to be, and Y/N, stop talking.”

You shut up indeed, although you still try to keep your pace as matched to Gally’s as possible.

You finally reach a dark, tall building, still in an unpopulated area. Gally halts in front of the wall and leans against it, cupping his hands in front of him as he indicates to giving you all a lift up. Newt goes first without too much of a struggle. You stop and eye Gally before your turn.

Gally rolls his eyes, “I’m not going to drop you.”

Your hands touch your hips, “You better not.”

“Just get up this wall before I grab you around the waist and throw you up there myself.” His voice comes out close to a growl, but his somewhat amused eyes tell you otherwise, and again; you’re confused, but instead of trying to figure him out, you just laugh at him sarcastically.

“Ha. Ha.”

You place your foot into his hands, and brace yourself by holding onto each of his shoulders. You avert your eyes from his, not wanting him to have an awkward realization of how close in proximity you are to him. He must realise your avoidance, because after a few seconds of staring at you, he asks you quietly, “Ready?” You nod in reply, and he carefully lifts you up and you quickly scramble up the wall, Newt helping to pull you up on the way, eager to get out of Gally’s grip… eager to not be so close to him.

As you wait for Thomas and Gally to climb the wall, you lean your back against the building, trying to calm your heart’s racing pace. You’re not afraid of heights, so it must be something else. Gally’s face flashes in your mind, and you remember how it felt to touch him, and for him to touch you, and to smell his scent again like back in the Maze… and you immediately push those thoughts out of your head.  _Don’t be stupid_. You thought those… feelings were locked away with the Maze.

“You alright?” Gally asks, crouched in front of you. His sudden nearness to you again almost overwhelming. You try not to frown (but you’re pretty sure you do) and push past him as you stand up, ignoring his question.

He clenches his jaw again, probably out of frustration with you, as always, and walks past you to lead the way up the stairs to the next level. When you’re all beside him behind the railing, he points out WICKED’s building, “There. That’s where they’re keeping Minho.”

Thomas stares at the building, “You’re sure?”

“Positive.” Gally opens his bag and pulls out some sort of object, you’re not too sure what it is in this darkness and sets it up on the railing; peeping through it towards the building. “Look through here to see into the building.”

Newt raises his eyebrows, “Why do we have to look in from so far away?”

As Thomas peers through, Gally explains how there’s just too much security on the place. “If we went any closer, it would be too risky. They’re high-tech and don’t like having anyone on the ‘outs’ seeing what they’re up to.”

“So,” you start, staring at the tall and very white-lighted building, “How do we get inside?”

Gally swallows, and you notice his nervous tic of scratching the back of his neck, “Not we…” He gestures to himself and just the boys, leaving you out, “Us.”

Thomas looks up at him, “Gally…”

“She,” his eyes rest on yours for a moment, “Is not coming with us.”

You open your mouth to argue back but Thomas cuts in quickly, already knowing that the best way to stop your arguments with Gally is by interrupting it before it can even begin. “We’ll talk about it later,” his blue eyes, now dark in the night, telling you to slim it. He repeats your question back to Gally, “How  _are_ we going to get inside?”

Gally moves his contraption slightly, “Have a look.”

Thomas pulls back immediately after only two seconds of looking through the scope; frowning, and confused. You eye Newt, who, after peeking himself, mouths the word  _Teresa_. You keep your mouth shut, deciding that Gally’s on very thin ice and you shouldn’t join him.

Gally shrugs at Thomas and ignores his hateful looks, “I said I was going to get you in there… I never said you would like it.”

Thomas looks through the scope again and mutters, “Well that’s just  _fantastic_.”

* * *

You stay out of the discussion, or more like, the interrogation of Teresa. It’s too weird for you to see her on the other side, on the enemy’s side, and for everyone to treat her like a prisoner. So, you keep your mouth shut, surprisingly, and try not to flinch too much when Gally starts to get aggressive in his demeanour.

Teresa agrees to help, after their interesting persuasive techniques, and they quickly and effectively decide on a plan to rescue Minho. You stay around, although you’re not too sure on how high your chances are on being included in said plan. Gally keeps reminding you with looks that you’re not a part of this rescue mission anymore, and it only frustrates you even further, especially since Thomas shuts you up every time you try to bargain with him.

“Alright, we have to head off soon if we’re going to get this done.” Thomas glances around at everyone involved in the room, “We’re going to do this. And I’m glad for all of your help and support.” He gives side-eye to Gally before speaking up again, “Which is why, Gally, I need Y/N to come with us. She’s been here from the beginning, and I need all the help I can—

“No.” His voice is flat, but firm, with stern eyes that only accentuate his decision.

You shake your head, standing up from the chair that you’ve been sitting since you got back, “Look, Gally, I don’t know what your deal is with me, but surely you can leave that in the past?”

He doesn’t respond, and that immature act only pisses you off.

“Thomas needs me, so I’m going. I’m sorry if I piss you off  _so_ much that you can’t even try to work with me—

Gally’s green eyes leave the ground and find yours in an instant, the stern firmness back again. “You don’t piss me off, Y/N.”

Again, confusion engulfs you; like it never even left. What is it with this boy? “Then why won’t you let me help?”

He stares at you without a single word, and honestly, it terrifies you, but not entirely.  _He_ doesn’t scare you, but what’s behind those eyes do, whatever emotion it is that he has in this single moment is something so unknown to you that you can’t help but feel afraid.

Finally, after consideration and silence between you two, he turns to Thomas, “She can come if she’s with me.”

“What?” You say, instead of heated and frustrated, you’re practically dumbfounded and definitely not grasping why Gally is behaving this way. You thought he didn’t want you to come because he couldn’t stand you, like in the Glade, it seemed as though he tried to avoid you or keep rules and restrictions on you in the Glade as much as possible – you thought it was because he didn’t like you. So why ask to keep you by his side?

Thomas raises an eyebrow at the both of you, obviously just as confused as you are, and turns to Newt for some sort of reassurance. When Newt nods, betraying you, Thomas glances at you for only a second before turning back to Gally, “Fine. She’s with you, if you can handle that.”

You roll your eyes but slip your backpack back on again. The others head off to wherever it is they need to be, and Gally immediately orders you to follow him. When you’re both alone, on your way back inside the city, you find some courage buried beneath you to speak up, “So, are you going to let me in on why you’re acting this way?”

“Maybe later.”

 _Well_ , you think to yourself with a mental shrug,  _at least he replied this time._

* * *

Gally signals to you that Teresa, Thomas and Newt have all passed the scanners and are inside the building, and that they’re just about to pass by you both. You follow Gally into the building and come out on the other side just as the other three walk through the hallway. Gally leads the way and you take up the rear of the group, your anxiety through the roof, fearing that somebody will realise that you’re not even a real WICKED soldier in this uniform. It’s easy for the boys, especially Gally, their manly figures and Gally’s muscular build and extreme tallness certainly give off the feeling of a true soldier… you on the other hand… let’s just say you try to extend your tallness at all times by straightening your back; like that would do much of anything.

You reach the room, where Minho is supposed to be inside, in a matter of minutes, after Gally secures the path. As soon as they push the doors open, the boys attack the other guards with the stun guns, and immediately all sorts of gunfire breaks loose.

You hide outside the room and shoot at the WICKED guards whenever you see an opening, careful to not hit any of your friends. Gally glances back at you and moves in front of your view. “What are you—

“Making sure you don’t die.” He shoots the last guard and leads the rest of the group inside the room. Newt and Thomas open the doors to the familiar WICKED “cells” that they keep the Munies in, like you when you were captured after the escaping the Maze.

Gally sets down his equipment in front of the vault full of WICKED’s serum and immediately begins preparing to open the steel, heavy doors.

Thomas, who realised Minho’s absence from his room, finds where he’s kept now instead and orders Teresa to escort him and Newt there. You go to follow them, but Gally grabs a hold of your arm, “With me, remember?”

You sigh and watch the others leave as you take a seat on the floor near Gally and the vault; taking off your helmet. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Nope.”

You cross your arms over your chest, “So, you allowed me to come only because if I’m paired with you, I don’t actually have to do a whole lot.”

“Yep.”

“Slinthead.”

He smiles at the use of Glade slang, “I’ve been waiting for you to call me that again.”

You chuckle at his amusement over this, “Well I’m sure I’ll use it a lot more.” You watch as he almost finishes with his preparation to open the vault, “Gally?”

“Hm?”

“Could now be the ‘maybe later’ time that you mentioned earlier?”

He smiles again, and it reminds you of how you felt when he protected you from the sirens, touched you when helping you up the wall… protecting you from the guards. “Nope.”

“Fine.” You lift yourself up from your position on the floor and make your way over to the immune children, who’ve quietly and comfortably situated themselves in a group on together near the front of the room. You sit at the front of the group, and notice that they all watch you, silently. “Guess I’ll just have to babysit, for now,” you mutter, but Gally hears you loud and clear.

“Guess so.”

You can’t help but notice the twinge of amusement in his voice.

One of the kids speaks up, eyeing you suspiciously, “Who are you guys?”

You swallow, almost in disbelief of how young they are. You’re not sure if they’re just randomly collected Munies, or if they experienced the Maze too, so you stick with the simplest route. “We were prisoners of WICKED too.” And that seems to be enough to satisfy them, as terrified glances and fearful eyes turn to trusting ones.

You continue to try and keep the kids as calm as possible while Gally works, constantly checking security and keeping an ear out for anymore guards. You tell the children stories, anything you can think of, and not only do they laugh but they ask for more… Gally sneaks a glance at you, and you kind of hate that you’re actually happy to be here with him keeping these children entertained.

“Alright!” Gally opens the vault doors the rest of the way, and you help him pack the bag that’s going straight to his group’s leader. Once everything is ready to go, he passes the bag of the serum to a kid, and shouts for everyone to follow him—which brings you all to the next stage of the plan: boarding the bus and getting the hell out of here.

You, again, guard the back of the group as he continues to lead you all through the building towards the ground level, where Brenda should be ready and waiting to drive you all out of the city. After turning another corner, you hear footsteps echo behind you, and as you glance back, gun fire immediately engulfs the hallway and echoes throughout that part of the building.

You stumble, as the stun gun narrowly misses their target: you. You shoot at the lone soldier, hitting his foot, and suddenly Gally is by your side, and not missing his target. He grabs your shoulder, his eyes intense and full to the brim of worry, “Are you alright? Did he hit you?”

“Gally, I’m fine.” You gesture to yourself, showing no obvious wounds, “I’m okay.” 

His emotional panic dies down as quick as it came about and takes the lead again but making sure to glance back at you every couple of minutes.

Once you finally reach ground level, Brenda’s truck screeches around the corner and brakes right on time for the kids to load onto the vehicle. You double check the amount of them, counting as they go onto the bus, while Brenda and Gally talk anxiously about Thomas’ unknown whereabouts. You try to ignore that, hoping nothing terrible happened to the others, and continue counting.

You reach the number you had in your head from the first time and walk over to Gally and Brenda.

Gally gestures for you to get onto the bus too, so you jog up the steps, but when you notice that he doesn’t follow you, you pause. “You’re not coming?”

“I have to find Thomas.” He breathes, the intense look back in his eyes, and something else that you can’t quite place. “You have to go with Brenda.”

You glance over at Brenda as she takes her seat back in the driver’s chair, and then at the bus full of kids, and then finally back to Gally. Suddenly you realise something, you don’t want to leave him – you can’t leave him. 

You hop off the bus just as Brenda tries to close the doors, and they shut behind you.

“Get on the bus, Y/N.” His voice is stern, but his eyes are kind, and only now are you realising the caring and protective side to Gally that you never understood before all of this. In the Maze, you just thought he was grumpy, that he didn’t like you, that he wanted to control you, but now you realise he’s only ever wanted to protect you and keep you safe.

“No.” You keep your eyes on him, and shaking your head you remind him, “I came on this mission on one condition, didn’t I?”

“Y/--

“To stick with you at all times.” You take a step closer to him, and looking up at him you say, “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

He hides the smile on his lips, but his happy eyes betray him all too quickly, “Fine.” He tells Brenda to wait for you both to find the others and takes your hand in his as you both run to find Thomas.

* * *

When you both have your helmets back on to keep you out of suspicion, his hand lets go of yours as you round a corner that holds a nearby group of guards, and you quickly start to feel unsafe without the reassurance that was brought by him holding your hand.

“Just follow my lead and don’t speak,” he murmurs quietly, confidently holding himself as he walks closer to them.

You nod slightly and do as he says: follow his lead. One of the guards waves you both down, his neat, cropped hair close to his face and a stern, distrustful look in his eyes.

“You two, where are you going?”

“We’re needed out the front of the building, where the gunfire came from.”

But the guard doesn’t seem content with his answer, in fact, he indicates for you both to remove your helmets almost immediately. As you feel Gally start to panic, and as your thoughts race to find a quick solution, out of the corner of your eye you spot some of the guards with their hands hovering over their guns; their fingers closing over the handle—

You take your own weapon out of its holster in the uniform’s belt and open fire on the guards. Gally pushes back behind the corner’s wall and fires too, and soon, most of the guards are down and no longer a threat.

You imagine Gally’s enraged green eyes underneath the helmet, “What the hell did you think you were doing?”

“I- I don’t know Gally, they were going for their guns—

His voice still gruff but something endearing and caring lingers within, “You could have gotten hurt.”

“But I didn’t…” You sigh, “Thanks to you, I didn’t.” You put your gun away, “Thank you, Gally.”

He doesn’t respond, and even though you can’t properly see his face under the thick, black helmet, you can tell he’s taken aback. You can tell that he’s surprised.

“Look,” You start, as you take off your helmet, brushing your ponytail off from your shoulder, “I misunderstood you. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be…” He also takes off his helmet, blinking out of surprise, “Don’t be sorry.” His hand finds your shoulder, and you’re not as surprised as you would have been hours earlier for finding comfort from his touch, again. “I’m the one who’s probably constantly confusing.”

You laugh, nodding your head, “I can agree with that.” You take a moment’s pause before speaking again, “but why did you…” all of a sudden, it seems to make sense in your head, but you’re not sure if you should believe it unless Gally tells you to your face.

He see’s your mini-realisation and smiles, “I’ve never wanted to see you get hurt, Y/N, so that’s why I wanted you to stay out of this mission. And why I wanted you under my watch, because I know I can protect you. I did it in the Maze and I’ll keep on doing it.”

“Really?”

He nods, “Really.”

Suddenly, more gunfire breaks out at the end of the hallway, and you’re both quickly swept back into reality. You put your helmets on once more and follow Gally to the commotion, all the while smiling happily under your helmet.

You spot Thomas and Newt… and Minho in the pool of water, you look up at the window on the side of the building and see it cracked, or more like, smashed right open, shards of glass still falling around them in the rippling water.

Other soldiers join you, and you freeze rigidly, anxious about what you and Gally should do next. But apparently that doesn’t need an answer, as Gally immediately takes the rest of the WICKED soldiers out, confusing the three boys in the water below.

Gally takes his helmet off and you follow suit, and the other boys’ eyes open wide as they realise you’re on their side. They come out of the pool of water, and you hug them all, especially Minho, who hugs you tightly as a much needed ‘hello’. Gally then signals for everyone to follow him, and it’s back to running, except this time out of the WICKED building for good.

You all realise that Brenda is long gone as you collapse behind a pillar within the city, somewhere. You sit between Minho and Gally, puffing from the overwhelming exercise and stress, it suddenly starts taking a toll on your body as you feel aching muscles and exhaustion begin to settle.

All the while, there’s almost deafening gunfire and practically all out warfare going on in the streets, between WICKED and the rebels.

A loud crack echoes through the air and you flinch, your hand reaching for Gally’s, who notices your distress and grabs a hold of your hand in his. You look up at him beside you, searching his eyes, he nods reassuringly and whispers, “It’s going to be okay.”

“What if we don’t get out of the city?”

“We will, we have to. The rebels came in through opening up one of the city’s walls, we can get through there.”

“No,” Thomas says, shaking his head, “We can’t.”

You squeeze Gally’s hand, and he says, “Why not?”

“Too far away and…” He gestures to Newt’s unfortunate state, coughing and wheezing, his eyes changing, his breathing rapid and heavy, “we’re just not going to make it.”

Minho check’s Newt over, asking if he’s okay, and you only barely bite back tears. You’ve all seen Cranks before, and the idea of Newt becoming one is just… terrifying… and doesn’t make any sense. Minho looks to Thomas, “What about Brenda’s Berg?”

“I don’t know where—

Just as Thomas begins to answer, a giant, flying Berg passes you all overhead, and your eyes spot the vehicle landing not too far from here.

“The serum, it’s in a bag, I gave it to one of the kids.” Gally says quickly, almost like he’s thinking too fast for his brain, “if we get to the Berg and grab a vial, we can bring it back for Newt.”

Minho nods along with Gally, “Yeah, yeah, that’ll work, won’t it Thomas?”

Thomas nods, and before Newt can protest, Minho and Gally are up in seconds. Gally’s hand, still on yours, brings you along with him, and he quickly shouts, “Shoot at anyone who looks like they’re going to attack us. Minho has to run, and we have got to cover him, okay?”

“Okay!”

You run down the street, stumbling over debris and ducking whenever Gally shouts for you to duck. You shoot multiple times, mostly at those who look like they’re from WICKED, and you constantly keep an eye on Minho as he runs out in front. You increase your speed so you’re not dragging behind, but the exhaustion that began to settle earlier starts to resurface even heavier than before.

After you struggle around a corner of a building, seeing the last stretch of the littered street, a soldier from WICKED jumps up from behind an abandoned, dark car shooting at you three madly. You fire back but miss as he dashes to the side, and as he fires again, in seconds you feel a hot and almost blinding pain sear through your right arm.

“Y/N!” You hear Gally’s voice before the pain becomes too much to bear.

You drop your weapon and hear it clatter over the road as you clutch your freshly wounded limb, trying not to cry out too loudly. The soldier is down and wounded too in a matter of seconds, and Gally comes to your aid immediately. He pulls you up, almost wildly, searching you and your eyes in a state of panic, “Where are you hurt? Are you okay?”

“Gally!” Minho screams, “We’ve got to  _go!_ ” He motions to the groups on the other side of the street, behind you both, and his words and alarming voice snaps Gally out of this panic. He puts his arm around your waist, and your left arm around his shoulders, and he uses his strength to get you out of there fast while shooting any enemy with his left hand.

Minho makes it to the Berg before the pair of you and is quickly given the serum needed for Newt. Gally immediately tells Brenda in panicked short breaths that you’re injured in the arm, and that she better “take damn good care of you” because he has to go back with Minho.

Just as he turns to go though, as Minho is almost halfway down the street already, you grab him before he can sprint off.

He frowns, “Don’t worry, I’ll be okay.”

“You better be,” You huff, “You better come back, okay?”

“I will, I promise.”

Your hands rest on his chest as you stand up on your tip-toes, kissing his lips slowly and gently, never having ever done something like this before. He feels your uncertainty but pushes that to the back of your mind as his arms wrap around your waist and his hands pull you closer to him. You feel him move with you, gentle but fiery all at the same time, and you find yourself wanting more as soon as he breaks away from you.

“I’ll be back.” He says this firmly, quietly, to you only, his eyes staring into yours to really confirm what he’s saying.

You nod and watch as he runs to catch up with Minho, and suddenly there’s tension instead of reassurance, and you can only wait for him to come back with the others; while somebody you don’t recognise tries to stop the pain and the bleeding in your right arm.

Brenda comes up beside you as the unknown member, probably someone from Gally’s group, cleans your wound the best they can while keeping as much pressure on it as possible. You wince with each passing occasion, trying to bite back the tears.

“Thomas…” She looks out down the road where you just came from, “Is he alright?”

You nod, “Yeah… he’s doing fine. He’s waiting with Newt.”

Brenda blinks, “What?”

“He’s…” You frown, thinking about what you said more carefully, but instead of trying to find your mistake you just say it again, more clearly this time, “He’s waiting with Newt.”

“He’s waiting with somebody who could turn any minute!?” Brenda shakes her head, “He shouldn’t have…” She grabs a weapon and signals to Jorge that she’s going to find Thomas and the rest of the guys, “He shouldn’t have been left alone with a Crank!”

Brenda’s words sting; cut deep. You watch as she runs down the road, and struggle to keep your breathing calm… Newt a Crank… Thomas hurt… These thoughts and images flash through your mind, and there isn’t anything you can do to put them at rest except wait for them to get back.

* * *

 You turn over in your makeshift mattress, a dull ache still residing in your arm, the sun filtering through the slightly open tent doors. You decide it must be sunrise, by the coolness of the morning air, and the faint glow of the sunlight. You notice Gally’s absence and practically roll out of bed to see where he went.

You slip on one of his jumpers, thrown by the side of the tent, and wander out onto the green, dew filled grass. You spot a few people awake too, preparing breakfast. You finally see the tall figure out on the sand by the shoreline, watching the sunrise.

You hug your arms to your chest as the cool, morning breeze hits you when you reach the sand. You feel the soft grains between your toes as you come up beside Gally, and when he notices your presence he opens his arms up to you, and you lean against his side, his arms around you and yours around him.

“You’re up early.” He says matter of fact.

“So are you.”

He sighs, “Yeah.” He kisses your forehead, “No need to worry about it though.”

“Wake me up next time.”

He furrows his brows, “Hm?”

“When you have a nightmare, wake me up.”

“But you—

You cut him off with a single look, and he closes his mouth in defeat. He sighs again, lovingly rather than tiredly this time, and kisses you adoringly and clumsily.

Between his kisses he mutters, “What on Earth would I do without you?”

You keep kissing him back, “Well, you definitely wouldn’t have morning kisses like these.”

“Guess I should wake you up, then.”

You chuckle, nudging his side, and he overreacts by feigning incredible pain. You spot Thomas and Minho walking towards you both, and you realise why Gally woke up so early after all.

They stand beside you both, and you look out to the ocean water, the crashing and sea-salt spray a little gentler than most days. You four stand on the beach’s shoreline in silence, remembering Newt and the life he had in the Glade and the Scorch, you remember the memories of food fights and stupid bets, you remember the sad times, when you cried on his shoulder at 2am when Gally was confusing to you more than ever. You four remember him in your own ways in silence; and acknowledge the month that has passed since his death in the city.

Like ESP or telepathy, you all know when the silence is over, and the remembering is done. You group hug and then follow the trail back up towards the Haven, sharing memories and laughing about the good times you’ve had.

Gally’s hand holds yours, and even though you’ve lost friends and gained them, you know that none of it was done for nothing because now you can finally live peacefully with the only family you need.


	11. Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: You're the only girl in the Glade and are used to your daily routine. When you're attacked by Ben after he's been Stung, and witness his Banishment, you can't help but feel guilty for his death.

You lift the green shirt up high, so you can inspect the piece of clothing completely. The sun filters through the thin fabric and you eye the stitching you just finished – unfortunately for Minho, others will know he had to get his shirt fixed since the colour of the string you used is a much darker green. You sigh, not out of frustration or lack of energy, this job was easier than some, but because Minho is a regular customer.

You hold out his shirt towards him as soon as he comes back to your room, “So, when are you going to stop tearing your shirts?”

Minho blushes lightly, snapping up the shirt almost immediately, “I can’t help it when it catches on the vines inside the Maze.”

“Well, you should start trying to help it.” You sigh again, “Otherwise all your shirts will be a mosaic of multi-coloured string.”

Minho shakes his head as he begins to walk off, “Yeah, yeah. Thanks for fixing my shirt.” His voice fades out as he jogs down the stairs and heads out of the Homestead toward his awaiting breakfast.

You smile smugly after him before packing away your things, slipping them into a box that sits directly under your bed. Being the only girl in the Glade has its perks. When you requested to not work in any of the other jobs and instead have your own, new job – to fix and make clothing and blankets – some thought it rather sexist. You however thought it the complete opposite, who else here got to create a new type of work? It’s what you do best and what you enjoy best. Although there are times when you still help out in the gardens.

Being in the Glade for a year, you’ve learnt a few things. Waking up as early as the Runners is a must, to sneak in a shower before any of the boys. And getting an early breakfast before everyone else, except the Runners, means that there’s always space for you to eat comfortably and at your own pace. Another thing you’ve learnt, however, is that boys don’t really give a damn how they look most of the time, something that you’ve been trying to fix. Before you came, they’d walk around the place with torn shirts, holes in shoes, ripped, thread hanging pants; now, not only do you fix their clothes, but you also make your own.

Like your dresses for example.

You check it in your mirror before leaving for your breakfast, a pale blue dress you only made just last month. Your designs are sometimes simplistic but other times you splurge a little, although you don’t really like to since your materials are sparse. You only ever get what comes to you among other supplies in the Box, and sometimes the Creators forget about you.

Usually you join Ben and Minho for breakfast or if Gally is up, you’ll sit with him and talk about new projects or whatever book you’re reading at the moment. Sometimes you’ll even sit with the new Runner, Thomas, but this morning you decide to eat alone in the calmness of the Glade morning, the vibrant yellows of the soon-to-rise sun as your view. You think about your day ahead of you, having already planned most of it out last night before going to sleep. It won’t be too busy but it’ll be work, and work is good, especially in a place like this. At least, that’s what Gally says.

“Up at the crack of dawn, like usual.” Gally comments as he slips into the seat across from you.

Your eyes widen slightly, having not expected to see him. You thought he was still asleep in the bottom level of the Homestead with the other Builders. “Like usual,” you repeat. You continue eating your breakfast, “How come you’re up early again? Usually I only get to eat breakfast with you once a month.” Gally suffered from insomnia, so on the odd chance he got to sleep in the late hours of the night he’d sleep until a little later in the morning. If he didn’t sleep at all, he wouldn’t bother to sit down to breakfast; instead he’d get straight to work.

He yawns sleepily, “Not by choice.”

“Nightmares?”

He nods slowly, “Always the same…” He looks off into the distance momentarily before snapping out of his daze, “Busy day?”

You sigh, “Nope. Maybe I can come help you?”

“In your dreams. Go help Newt in the gardens, that’s more your thing.”

“Hey, I could lug around a big piece of wood anytime.”

Gally raises his eyebrows at you seconds before he bursts into a great big laughing fit and at first, you’re confused. Of course you are. But living with only boys for a year has changed your once innocent mind. You face-palm, embarrassed, your cheeks growing bright red. “That was barely dirty and you know it.”

But Gally, obviously half-ridden with lack of sleep, can’t seem to stop laughing, probably because you’re so embarrassed about it.

You continue to defend yourself, “You laugh at any sentence with the word wood in it, you know?”

In between laughs he manages to mutter, “Only when you say it.”

You roll your eyes playfully and grab up your dirty dishes, “Guess I won’t offer to help you out ever again.” You turn to go, walking towards the Kitchens, Gally’s laughter echoing behind you. You shake your head, _boys_.

* * *

 

It happens in mere seconds.

First, you’re crossing the Glade to meet up with Gally before dinner, something about plans for a new shower block, and then, you’re knocked into the ground; the air sucked out from your lungs – winded and a heavy weight on top of you.

Frantic, you scream as soon as you realise the weight isn’t a thing but a someone. Your hands, palms splayed over his chest, push against him with as much strength as you can conjure in sheer panic. Still yelling for help, you continue to push – but suddenly he presses against your throat.

You meet eyes with Ben, hair dishevelled, and big eyes discoloured. His skin pale and sickly and his veins swelled and purple. The pressure on your throat isn’t fatal, yet, but if he pushes any harder you might just…

He screams at you, loud and piercing, enraged almost and you don’t understand why. In this single moment of his pain and your pain, you feel as though he might kill you. That you might actually die, so you only push and shove against him more.

Suddenly though, there’s another person, a flash of colour out of the corner of your eye. And Ben is practically flung off of you and shoved into the earth a few meters away from where you lie. You sit up in the grass, dazed by the lack of oxygen and panicked still, heart beating fast. You spot Gally and a couple of other boys, who only now rush to the scene, beating down on Ben until he’s knocked unconscious.

You still sit in the grass, staring at your shaking hands, confused by Ben’s sudden attack. Even when Gally comes to your side, trying to help you stand so he can get you to the med-jacks, you still stare down at your hands. Your legs moving mechanically, without your will. The last thing you see before you’re subject to the med-jacks is Ben’s writhing body in the green grass.

* * *

 

_Banished._

You wake up in a flurry of emotions, your heart racing and sweat almost caking your entire body. You yelp as you open your eyes. A mere sound… until you realise you called out his name. Ben’s name.

The tears come quickly as you remember. The attack. Because he was Stung by a Griever. The meeting. Discussion. Voting. Banishment. You still remember his desperate cries as they pushed him out with pointed, sharpened sticks. The look of fear on his face. His big, wide eyes pleading for another chance. The last stare he gave, to you.

Gally didn’t want you at the Banishment. He didn’t know you watched from behind the patch of trees near the Maze entrance until after he began collecting everyone’s sticks up. He rushed you away from the scene, a tight grip on your arm, and practically stuffed you back into your room. You know he meant well. You know he was only trying to protect you when he said that you shouldn’t see what happened to Ben. But you couldn’t help it. You felt responsible, somehow.

There’s a knock on your door, rapping quickly against the hard wood. You lazily look up from your tear stained pillow, glancing in the direction of your bedroom door, but you don’t bother to answer.

“Y/N, it’s me Newt.”

You collapse back onto your pillow, face stuffed into its cushioning, and you don’t respond. You’re too tired to deal with anyone.

“I just wanted to know if you’re okay. Gally told me you were at the Banishment.”

“I’m fine.” You say, slightly strained as you fight off the emotions.

“You haven’t left your room all day, I’m worried about you.”

You roll your eyes, feeling the tears well up in the corners of your eyes, wondering how on earth you could be crying again when you feel as though all the water inside you has been cried out already. “Look Newt, I’m fine. That’s what I told Thomas when he came knocking. That’s what I told Minho, Alby, Frypan! So just leave me be.”

You hear Newt sigh, long and winded, and a couple of minutes pass by before he decides there’s no getting through to you. His footsteps echo down the hallway and disappear down the stairs.

You’re not the sort to wallow. At least, you never thought you were. You try to tell yourself that Ben could have attacked anyone, that it was pure chance you walked by when you did. That he was out of his mind, affected by the poison from the Grievers. But none of that seems to be enough to cleanse you of your guilt; the guilt that builds up with each minute that passes.

Suddenly though, there’s another loud series of knocks on your door.

You lift your head again to answer, “Go away, Newt!”

“It’s me.”

You recognise Gally’s voice immediately, the gruff, harsh tones, his serious voice. You contemplate leaving him there and not responding at all. But something inside you wants to open the door; to let him in, because you know the kind person that he is, with you.

You roll out of your bed and twist the door, pulling it open only slightly. You see a slit of his face through the crack of the door, you eye him and then walk away, sitting back down on your bed.

Gally pushes the door open further and walks in, glancing around at your room momentarily, before his eyes set on you. Immediately he notices your hair in disarray, your pyjamas and your puffy, red eyes. “So, you’re not dead.” He pauses, closing the door behind him, “Or at least, I think you’re not,” he says, noting the exhausted, physical state of you.

You roll your eyes, “Ha ha.”

He smiles, small and almost impossible to notice, but you notice it all the same. He takes a seat beside you on your bed, the mattress creaking slightly with his weight. “You coming down for dinner?”

You shake your head.

“Too bad. It’s your favourite.”

You huff, crossing your arms over your chest, “Sure it is.”

He realises coaxing you out of your room with food won’t work on you and must conclude that you’re in a pretty serious state. He takes a moment to think over his words carefully, his eyes never leaving your face. “Y/N.”

You don’t look at him in the eyes.

“You know it isn’t your fault.”

Your face hardens at his remark, your eyebrows squashed together out of frustration. “If… If I hadn’t been there, he wouldn't—

Gally interrupts you almost immediately, "If you hadn’t been there, some other shank would’ve copped it. And Ben still would’ve been Banished.”

“How can you say that? We shoved him out into the Maze, out where the Grievers are!”

“Do you think he would have been any better in the Pit? Lock him up while he’s in agony over being Stung? Memories surging back while literal poison filters through his blood, killing him slowly?”

You stand up from your bed, emotional, “Is that what you tell yourself to make it seem okay!? To make you feel better!?”

“No!” He shouts as he stands too, looming over you entirely. “I don’t say it to make me feel better. I say it because it’s the truth.” His words hang in the air as he calms down again. As you calm down again. He takes a hold of you by the arms, gentle and protective, “Ben hurt you.”

You breathe in harshly, hating the tears in your eyes.

But Gally is persistent. Persistent but caring, he holds your eyes in his, “No one hurts another Glader, remember?” His eyes not looking away from yours, “And no one hurts  _you_.”

You nod slowly, unable to speak, as he pulls you in close to his chest for a hug. A much-needed reassurance, a much needed intimacy. “Can I still be sad that he’s gone?” Your voice is almost muffled by his shirt.

“Of course you can. I’m sad about it too.” He pulls away to find your eyes again, wiping them from tears, “But don’t go thinking it was your fault. It was the Grievers fault, the Maze, this shuck place and its Creators. Not yours. Okay?”

You whisper, still holding onto him, “Okay.”

“You’ll get through this, you know?”

You look up at him, “You think so? Because right now… I don’t feel like I can.”

He pulls you into him closer, never been one to act impulsively when it came to physical intimacy, but he knows it’s what you need right now, “It will be okay.” Gally leaves a small kiss on your forehead, unexpectedly, and you cherish it.

You lift your face to smile up at him but when you do, you find comfort in pressing your lips against his. Momentarily. Short. Over in a few seconds, but still sweet nonetheless. He kisses you back.


End file.
